Original subtitles

https://torrentgalaxy.to/profile/HashMiner (static humming)

(tone reverberating)

(electronic tone twanging)

(birds chirping)

(car doors clunking)

(engine revving)

- I was calling to find out about,

I believe it was Detective Purvis

that came out and spoke with Candy.

I was wondering if you knew whether there

had been any warrants issued for (bleeping).

Mm-hmm, no, he knows where the shelter is, here.

He told her, "I know where the shelter is,

"I know how to find, I know where to find you."

This is pretty serious.

(car engine passing)

- Even though I choose to by around him, when I shouldn't.

And I know that I shouldn't, but it's only because

of the fact that I'm scared.

And I feel like if I don't do anything he asks of me,

like come when he calls, or stop everything I'm doing

just to be there, that he would hurt me.

(keyboard clacking)

(door hinge squeaking)

- So what, tell me what just happened?

- He text me, he's saying he's on his way to Clapp's.

Car wash, here in Pittsboro. - Here?

Alright, I'm gonna call Ed right now and tell him.

Okay? - 'Kay.

- You okay with that?

- So-so, I guess, I don't want to involve the law,

but he just needs to leave me alone.

- You understand that that's not gonna happen

unless law enforcement intervenes.

- Yeah. - To make it stop.

- Hey, Buddy, I have a question for you.

One of the residents at the shelter,

her abuser keeps calling her on her cell phone.

She was gonna text him back, and say, "Where are you?"

And then call the Pittsboro PD and say,

"Here's where he says he is."

Is that some kind of entrapment?

Not entrapment.

- Now you do it, baby, how 'bout text him back

and say, "Where are you at?"

Where are you at, okay, good.

Let's see how long it takes. - Okay.

- [Advocate] Oh, oh, here we go.

- Just left Elizabeth's Pizza. - Alright.

- Hey, he just texted her and said he just

left Elizabeth's Pizza. (camera shutter clicking)

Do you want to text him back and say,

"I will me you at Clapp's in five minutes."

- Okay. - She's texting him now.

- Police everywhere.

- [Advocate] He said, "Police is everywhere."

That's what he, so. - Oh my god.

- [Candy] Swarm me, did you do this?

(Kit gasping)

- He just texted her and said, "Swarm me, did you do this?"

Did they get him?

That's what he, he just, - License check.

- Oh, he was in a license check.

If they just did a fucking license check, why?

- [Kit] It should be in the system, so.

- On my way to Al's Diner.

He's on his way to Al's.

- He says, "On my way to Al's Diners."

Tell him, be there in five, you text,

be there in five minutes.

- Okay. (buttons clicking)

- Alright, alright, bye. - Are they gonna go get him?

- Yeah, he said just be vigilant and keep documenting.

(Candy sobbing intensely)

- It's not your fault.

You know, it's not your fault.

His choices and the things that he did are what caused this.

Okay? I did it.

I made the call.

I did it, okay?

(cell phone ringing)

- This is Ed, hello?

- Hey. - Hey.

Right next door, not right up from the shelter?

- Salisbury? - Yeah.

- That's a half block from here.

Less than half a block. - Ed thinks

that's where he's at.

Check to see where she is.

Oh my god.

Oh my god, please, please, please, please.

Woo, yes, oh yeah!

Oh, thank you, Ed.

You sure they got him?

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you, I hope they set his bond high enough to where he

can't get out, 'cause he is gonna be one pissed off.

Thanks (laughing emotionally).

Yes, I'm so happy!

Whew. (door creaking)

(Kit clapping) (advocates cheering)

- Woo! - Yay.

(Candy sobbing)

- [Kit] It's okay.

- You alright, sweetie? - Yeah, I'm good.

- [Kit] It's okay.

- [Candy] It's so hard.

- [Advocate] Yes, it's hard.

Yes it is, it's very hard.

- [Candy] I feel like it's my fault.

- [Kit] It's not your fault.

It is not your fault.

You didn't make him who he is.

If it wasn't you, it'd be somebody else.

- It's Charlotte Talks on listener-funded 90.7 WFAE

and 90.3 WFHE, I'm Mike Collins.

We're talking about domestic violence.

Kit Gruelle is also a survivor, so she has worked

with California POST, that state's effort to train

law enforcement officers to deal with domestic violence.

And she is known nationally as an advocate

and community educator on this topic.

And you brought a stack of files here.

- These are all restraining orders

from one year in North Carolina.

Now these are not all the restraining orders

that were issued, there's probably 45 or 50 orders here.

And every single one of the women who went to obtain

these orders of protection was murdered.

In precisely the ways that they said they were gonna be.

So I sometimes refer to restraining orders

as the Last Will and Testament.

Because battered women are the experts in what's happening

in their relationship, and we need, society, we need

to treat them like the experts that they are.

When she says, "He's going to kill me."

Or, "He's going to kill my family."

Or, "He's going to kill my cousin if he can't get to me."

We have got to step on the brakes and slow down

and take that whole thing seriously.

And then, when there's a restraining order violation,

our judicial officials have to understand that he

is showing contempt for the court system.

And he truly is a risk to her and to community at large.

- If you're not being hit, if you're not being threatened

with a knife, or some kind of a weapon.

If it's just words, if it's intimidation,

if it is belittling, how do you recognize it?

How do others recognize it?

How do you then get others to say, to help you stop it?

- When I do the hostage negotiations class, this is one

of the things that I bring up with the negotiators.

My late husband was a freak about food intake.

He was trying to gain muscle weight,

so he wanted a lot of protein calories.

And so every night before he went out,

he wanted a bowl of ice cream, and on the ice cream,

he wanted peanuts, because peanuts are so high in protein.

So when I went to grocery store,

I had to buy salted peanuts.

Put them in a colander, rinse them off and pat them dry.

And put the rinsed-off peanuts on the ice cream.

And while he was eating his ice cream, if he came across

salt on the peanuts, he would beat me up, because he said

I didn't do a good enough job washing the peanuts.

So when I go out and do the negotiations class, I say to

these cops, what happens when you show up on the scene

and you get her out there in the back of the patrol car,

and she's saying to you over and over and over again,

"I should have done a better job washing the peanuts."

And when women say stuff like that,

it's not because they're crazy,

it's because the way they're really living.

(slow guitar music)

Our criminal justice system requires

that she be beaten enough to satisfy the system.

And by the time it gets to that point,

she's already been so worn down, psychologically,

and physically and emotionally, that's when it's really

time for advocates to really step up.

And begin to treat her like she has some value.

Because she's been told now, systemically, that she doesn't.

The courts have told her that she doesn't have value.

And her partner has told her that she doesn't have value.

Perhaps family and friends have done that

through their actions with her.

And all that strips away from her.

So I think another thing that advocates do is,

instead of stripping away, we try to build back up.

You know, a lot of times battered women leave.

Four or five, six, seven, eight times.

And people start to get tired of it.

They see a woman leave an abuser and then go back.

It's complicated.

Leaving an abuser is not an event, it's a process.

And this is where advocates come in.

It's not our job to say to her, "We're gonna be your

"advocate, when you leave the first time, when you leave

"the second time, when you leave the third time.

"But on that fourth time,

"we're not working with you anymore."

That's not how it goes.

If we're going to be effective advocates, we're going

to recognize that each woman's case is unique.

And each woman's case is special.

Anybody have any experiences with the boyfriend

or the husband?

You've had that experience.

- It went on for nine years. - Wow.

- I went back, I left and went back three times.

And I won't, this time.

And this last time, he almost killed me

in front of my daughter.

And now I have had 23 seizures,

and my daughter has seen

every one of them and she takes care of me.

- But what happened to you shouldn't happen

to anybody, ever.

- I know that and that's why I'm here (sniffling).

- What do your parents have to say about it?

- Why didn't you just leave?

- Did he ever threaten to kill you?

- Yeah, lots of times.

My mom called the police officers, and one of the officers

said that he knew my husband.

And that he knew he was violent person.

But he wasn't violent enough to kill someone.

They came, I filed charges for the abuse that I went through

because it happened in another state.

So I'm left to just live with it.

(tense music)

- It's very hard in Deanna's case, to see a woman get so

hideously beaten and then, essentially, to have the local

courts say, "Well, we're sorry that happened to you,

"but we're really, we're just gonna let it go."

We just can't let this go.

Something has to be done.

I do this work because

I survived a really violent relationship.

Jack punched me really hard in the face.

One time, punched me like I was a man.

And it was the whole thing, with doing flips off the porch,

and seeing stars and birdies, and I remember thinking,

wow, this is, it's really like the cartoons.

And for four days, I stayed on the couch,

with a blanket pulled up over my face.

Because I didn't want the boys to see me,

because I looked so bad.

But then, I couldn't eat,

and I was having a hard time even swallowing stuff,

so I knew that I needed to get it looked at.

And Jack drove me down to see my OB/GYN.

And he walked in the room and looked at my face,

and immediately looked away.

And I just remember feeling sort of

a whole new layer of isolation,

because my doctor wouldn't look me in the eye

and say, "What happened to you?"

- Alright, so I got one on my face, where you slapped at me.

Okay, so we were going at it. - Wait, does that make sense

though, let's think about this.

- Let me see. - This.

- You scare me. - Okay, alright, that'll work.

Are you, okay, you want me to do this again?

- You need some more, yeah.

(knocking on door)

- [Trainer] I don't know why you always gotta be thinking

I'm cheating on you.

- Well, what was that phone number?

(knocking on door) - Who cares what the phone

number was, you ain't got no business going through my

damn phone to begin with. - I don't care, why don't,

stop it, stop it.

(thudding loudly)

- It's just some girl that lives down here,

- Who is that person, you're not supposed

to be seeing someone. - Come on, Kit, shut up.

Just shut up.

What? - How you doing today, sir?

- I'm alright.

- Is it alright if I come in and take a look inside?

Mind if we talk to y'all separately?

- No, that's fine, or you can talk

to us together. - Alright.

- Pardon me, sir, can I talk to you outside?

- Yeah, sure.

- How are you doing, Ma'am?

- Have you seen the way he looked at me?

(training officer drowned out by crashing)

- What uh,

- Did you see the way he just looked at me?

- Yes, ma'am, what seems to be going on?

- She starts flipping out, she's bi-polar,

I mean, she's got her issues.

And when she gets that way, she gets really physical,

and everything, she's scratched me.

- He grabbed me by the throat.

- Do you have any marks or anything?

- I don't know if I do or not, I don't know.

- Have you considered trying staying somewhere?

Over the night, seeing if it'll cool down?

- Mm, what's going on? - Nothing, just finished up

my getting his statement.

So maybe it's play it safer,

just split them up for the night.

- Yeah. - Come back in the morning.

- Yeah. - See if we can't make

heads or tails of this, who's lying, who's not.

- Thought they were done.

It's always police shit.

(Kit laughing)

- You're a good roller. - Yeah, I know.

- As far as the whole, splittin' them up, or taking one

of them to jail, I mean, what should have been the call?

- You've got injuries on her neck.

Hers are more serious than mine.

Mine look like they could be defensive marks.

You're probably walking away from here with me in cuffs,

at that point.

- Since we couldn't establish the primary aggressor,

we figured we'd err on the side of caution

and just split you up for the night.

- How do you feel like they did?

- I think you did fine.

One thing that, when we was walking out the door,

didn't I say to you, "Did you see how he looked at me?"

- I did. - But, like he could,

Or she could. - That was not so subtle.

- One of the other can, - I saw you glance back,

especially when we came in. - Oh, it was about

a five second stare, before I walked out the door.

Basically, giving her notice.

- So what does he want to do?

What does this abuser want to do?

He wants to maintain control over the situation.

So he's gonna have a variety of different tactics

that he's gonna use, some won't be obvious at all.

Some will be things like the look, or maybe the way

he closes the door a little bit harder, things like that.

And these are things that she'll key off of,

he'll key off of, but I just ask y'all

to keep your eyes and ears open.

Because there could be behaviors like that,

that will shut her down.

(slow guitar music)

(door creaking)

- Hello. - Hey.

- Hello. - Hello.

- How do you feel about telling people

about what happened in your case?

- Oh, it doesn't bother me too much.

- Mm-hmm. - I feel like it helps.

- So let's start at the beginning.

What was it like when you all first started dating?

- For the first two months, he was really sweet

and nice, and then he kinda questioned

what I had done in the past.

And wanted to know who my friends were

and what I'd done with them.

And then, it started from there.

- This is Robbie?

- Yes, and that's Martina's first Halloween.

On Halloween, he told me that I had to go

with him on his trucking trip.

And I told him no, that I had to work.

And he said I was gonna go,

that he wasn't gonna leave me there to cheat on him.

And so he made me go and

when we got in Tennessee is when he started beating me.

Martina, just, she asked him over and over,

"Why are you doing it to my, why are you hurting my mama?"

And he would tell her, "She doesn't love you,

"and she doesn't love me, it's okay to hurt Mommy."

And he would hit me with the flash light.

He hit me in the head, on the shoulders, the elbows.

He would hit my knees so hard that I could hardly

bend my legs. - Mm-hmm.

- He would put, while he was beating me, there was a little

mirror, about that big, on the side of the truck.

And he would hit me, and then he get me by the hair,

and pull me up and make me look in that mirror

and ask me if it was worth it.

We stopped at one truck stop to get him some meatballs.

And Martina said she wanted some.

And he said, "No, you can't have some

"until your mommy tells me the truth."

And he said, "And you can tell your mommy

to tell me the truth if you want some."

And so she started crying, because she was really hungry,

and she told me to tell her daddy the truth.

And I told her that I had, and she was screaming

and begging me,"Please tell Daddy the truth."

And that was so hard.

Robbie got one of them out of the pack,

and he looked at Martina, and he held it in her face,

and he said, "Look, this is gonna be so good."

And he took a bite of it and was going, "Mmm, Martina,

"this is so good, and just think, if your mommy

"had told me the truth, you could had some."

It was just all I could take.

And I grabbed the flashlight, and I was just gonna beat it.

I just couldn't stand it, and I was just bound

and determined I was gonna beat him.

And when he saw me grab the flashlight,

he dropped the meatballs.

And when he did,

I grabbed the meatballs and let him beat me

with the flashlight and while I fed the meatballs to her.

And I didn't care how hard he hit me.

As long as she got those meatballs.

I didn't care, the whole time that I fed those meatballs

to her, he hit me that flashlight.

And I could feel my knees swelling, it was so hard

to hold on to them, but I was bound and determined

that I was going to, and I did.

I wasn't gonna let my baby starve because of him.

- He wasn't arrested until, when was it, November 9th?

The charges were just filed, assault on a female.

I just felt like why wasn't there attempted murder?

- Mm-hmm. - Deanna and I had met with

That DA, I think a week or two before that.

- Mm-hmm. - And he had told us

that she didn't have a very strong case.

Because most of her stuff happened out of state.

The DA said that the Grand Jury would ask Deanna why she

left, what was her reason for leaving the county him?

Because at first, it was willing,

they would say she left willingly.

It was after she left North Carolina

that the beatings start.

So that they would completely just turn back on her.

- Mm-hmm. - And, basically,

he was gonna get off, on a state level,

for what had happened to her.

(slow music)

- I've seen cases like this over and over again.

Where women are severely beaten, sometimes shot,

and sometimes stabbed, and the offender is charged

with assault on a female, or assault with a deadly weapon.

Both charges charged as misdemeanors.

But we have a law on the books that says that if you steal

a bale of pine straw, that's a felony.

Despite the fact that we'd like to think that those laws

are outdated, the belief systems behind those laws

are still very much a part of the way things get played

out in court every day, across the country.

(slow guitar music)

- So, it's kind of busy today.

- It is, this this an extremely busy day.

- [Kit] They're bringing the guy over from jail.

- That's this one. - Is that for

a restraining order violation?

- He was arrested for the same incident that she took out

the DVP for. - Oh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

- Yes, sir. - I met with the DA's office

down the security report.

- [Judge] Thank you and we will come back

for this matter shortly,

and thank you for your patience in that regard.

So that completes the call of our Civil Calender,

is there anybody?

- So we're just trying to explain to her

what may happen today.

- Mm-hmm, what do you want to have happen?

- I just want him to stay away from me that's all.

He gets out today, so I just want him

to stay away from me.

- Did he get picked up on Friday?

- No, he got picked up a week before last,

- It was Thursday, - March 1st, and,

- Does he have a long history?

- Oh yeah, he's a felon, a big felon.

And this is third offense assault on a female.

- With you, or with other women?

- Other women.

- [Lawyer] And just with her case, there are three or four

felony charges. - Three felonies.

- Do you have family close by?

- Yeah. - So you feel,

when you're at home, you feel like you're pretty safe?

- No (laughs). - No.

- He's got it all. - He's got friends.

- My worry is he's gonna get - Her worry is more who he

knows or is going to ask. - Some other people,

'cause his cousin lives less than a mile from me.

- Does the judge know all this?

- No, not at all. - No, she hasn't had a chance

to talk to him yet.

- Make sure that he knows all this stuff,

because the restraining order's supposed to say

no third party contact, too.

- Yeah. - So the, this sounds

fairly serious, don't be afraid to say anything.

It's not your job to fix broken men.

- No, tell me about it. (both laughing)

- A lot of us think that it is, but it's not.

- Yeah, well (mumbling)

- I'm sorry. - Well, thank you.

- Well, it was nice to meet you.

- Thank you, you too.

- All rise. - Alright, we're here today

to address the matter of a civil restraining order,

that would bar you from having any contact.

What would you like to do, would you like a moment

to talk to Ms. Kennabrou?

- Yes. - Yes, sir.

- [Judge] Alright, thank you, yes, ma'am.

- It was a concern of Ms. Morgan's that third party,

no third party contact be allowed, and that'd be entered,

- [Judge] That would be the condition

of a DVPM. - Okay

- [Ms. Morgan] He turned around and looked at me,

with that, his look.

(slow music)

- Yes, ma'am, what's up?

- So, I wanna talk with you a little bit about this case

in Ashe County, involving a woman who was kidnapped.

Pretty severe beating.

- And when you say kidnapped, do you mean?

- Kidnapped. - Okay, held against her will,

- Held against her will,

She and her daughter, - Transported.

- She and her daughter were taken out of the state,

and driven all the way to California, and halfway back.

And the truck was stopped in Oklahoma.

This was in an 18-wheeler. - Okay.

- And he beat her for 4 1/2 days.

- What kind of injuries does she have?

Holy crap. - So, this is the injuries.

- What'd he use? - His fists,

a Maglite flashlight, he bit her.

- Any internal injuries?

Or is it all, is it all tissue injury?

Soft tissue injury?

- Well, he also strangled her.

- Okay, do we have any medical doctor who's gonna say

these are serious injuries?

'Cause in state court, that's the tough part.

Is when we're talking about soft tissue injuries,

when you don't have damage to the spleen, internal injuries,

or cuts that require stitches.

Concussions can be serious injury.

- The local prosecutor called this a misdemeanor assault.

- Okay, no. - Yes.

- Okay, no, I would push felony charges,

probably for kidnapping, if it's a Maglite,

a Maglite's a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon,

inflicting serious injury.

It's all about getting a medical doctor to say on the stand,

"Yes, this is serious injury."

Is it serious bodily injury?

Sure, is it protracted pain and suffering

that she has suffered, yeah, I think so.

But even if we succeed on all levels,

what I'm telling you, Kit, is that you may not be satisfied

with the amount of time that they're gonna get

at the state level.

- If he was convicted only of misdemeanor assault

on a female, even with doing this.

- Yep. - What would he

be looking at as far as time?

- The most he could receive is 150 days in jail.

- 150 days in jail for this. - That's it.

So that's what I'm saying, you have a clearer case

where he's transporting a woman across state lines,

for the purpose of terrorizing and assaulting her.

That is a federal case, all over.

And so what we need to do, or what you need to do,

since it's not in my county, is really push

and talk to the federal prosecutor in that area.

In that district, which would be the Western District.

And say, this is the case, and get them interested in it.

I think they will be. - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- I think they will be. - Yeah.

(slow music)

- That's basically where everything started that night.

Robbie just pulled up to the hospital,

in one of the lower parking lots.

He said if I screamed, the security guards couldn't hear me.

And that's where he started his abuse.

I separated from him because he was hitting me.

And then, he convinced me, along with others,

that he had changed.

And I wanted to believe it.

And for my sake, and for Martina's sake,

I wanted Martina to have a daddy, she missed him.

Let him back into our lives, and it was

the biggest mistake I ever made.

My parents are scared for me, really.

I feel they're scared for me to be with anybody.

They don't, they're just too overprotective now.

They were then, but now it's worse.

They're afraid Robbie's family's gonna hurt me.

But I don't, I don't like

feeling like I'm pitied.

(slow music)

- Since you are the nation's foremost expert

on strangulation assaults, this looks to me like she

was pretty seriously assaulted.

- (coughing) Okay, so give me a 30 second overview,

beginning with the fact, that she is still living, correct?

- She's still alive, she and her daughter

were kidnapped by her husband.

He beat her from North Carolina to California.

The truck was stopped in Oklahoma.

Now he was not arrested, by the Oklahoma police.

They just told him that he had to find his own way back

to North Carolina and that was it.

I mean, when you look at Deanna's photographs,

as a strangulation expert, what do you see?

- Alright (sighing).

Well, it's bad.

It's bad, one has to immediately go to the petechiae

around her left eye and, to a certain extent,

around her right eye.

The white part of her eye, the sclera, looks bloody

towards the middle part, and that even looks more like

a subconjunctival hemorrhage.

So that's the tiny little capillaries in the white part

of your eye actually bursting from the choke hold itself.

Any emergency physical would be thinking, "Could she

have been strangled?" - Mm-hmm.

- And that's in addition to the other elements.

- Now, one of the things that she has said to me

is that she had a seizure disorder that was in check.

Until she was assaulted like this.

- If you're cutting off all the blood supply to the brain,

which is one of the reasons you pass out

when you're strangled, if you have a seizure disorder,

it's going to start evidencing it's pathology again.

There should be a lot less here, that would have even been

prosecuted with a third of this pathology,

a tenth of this pathology.

I can't process that, I can't.

(slow music)

(people chattering)

- Do you want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

- Hmm? - Do you want a

peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

- I'm gonna make some tuna. - Okay.

- (laughs) Good girl.

- And then the bitch calls, - Yep.

- The social worker called, and wants to cover for Mike.

It was a miscommunication, a fuckin' miscommunication,

my ass, is what went through by brain.

But, yes, Ma'am, I understand, (people laughing)

thank you very much, I'll see you in court on Thursday.

I've already called my attorney, thank you.

- As the special order want.

- Let me ask you something. - Okay.

- I felt fuckin' wonderful.

- What brought you home, what brought you back here?

- That, one, you let me come back home after I had

that nervous breakdown that I had last weekend.

You let me come back home, and you believed in me,

and you believed in me.

And these girls believed in me.

- That's right, and we believe in you.

- I'm able to stay sane.

- It's 'cause you're worth it,

don't ever let anybody tell you otherwise.

- I refuse to. - Good.

- That's right. - Fuck 'em.

- You know I'll say it. - Be happy she is.

- That's why I'm here.

(rain spattering) (wipers rocking)

- Here we go, North Carolina thunderstorm.

This case that I'm working on right now involves a woman

who killed her abuser, after a number of years

of real severe domestic violence.

What I'm gonna do today is go down and meet with her sister.

And her sister, Regina, has photographs of what Latina

looked like before she got together with her boyfriend.

During the time that she was with him, he puncher her in

the eye so many times that she's now blind in her right eye.

And then I just wanna get a sense of what we can all do

to try to support Latina.

She's charged with first-degree murder, so she's looking

at spending the rest of her life in prison.

(door clunking) Hi.

When were these pictures taken?

- Those pictures are like eight or nine years ago.

- From eight or nine years ago.

Do you mind if I snap pictures of this picture

with my phone? - Mm-mm.

You've been to see her in jail, right?

- Mm-hmm. - So you see

how beautiful she was here. - Mm-hmm.

And then now, her eye looks like it does.

So she's told me several times that she really

loved him a lot. - Mm-hmm.

Because every time he beat up on her, she still went back.

And we just asked her why

you wanna go through things like that.

- What'd she say? - She said she love him.

- Uh-huh, your mom mentioned to me that she'd gone through

a lot of stuff with your dad.

- Mm-hmm, my sister, she told me that is why she is

the way she is right now, because my dad used to beat up

on my mom all the time.

That's why she feel like she don't want to leave Woody,

because she knows it's not normal, but, in her mind,

it's normal to her, you know what I'm saying?

- Mm-hmm. - I kept telling my sister,

If you don't leave, he gonna end up killing you.

And it was just shocking to know

that it happened the other way.

Because we cried plenty of times on the phone,

talking about this, that he's gonna kill her and all that.

I was hurt, because when things like that happen,

you gotta survive.

- That's why he kept that business so much.

Yeah, she was always scared because he would always throw

that fist out, he done shot at her.

He done shot at her and my cousin at the same time.

'Cause my cousin was sticking up for her when he was about

to beat her up, and she said, "No, you're not fittin'

"to beat her up in front of me."

So then he started shooting at them.

- Your cousin? - My cousin, and they're

running down the path. - See, this is the stuff.

- They're running down the pathway.

- This little stuff like this, what's your cousin's name?

And see, if he'd have ever been arrested,

and gone to jail for what he was doing,

then maybe that would given her a break.

- I was thinking that, yeah, one of the time, the last time,

when he beat her up like really, really bad,

that he messed up her eye, her ribs and all that.

I think he had a warrant for his arrest for that.

- Right, right, but then he was killed before they ever got

a chance to do anything with that.

- Yeah. - Right.

If you can think of anybody else that has, like this woman

that was with Latina when he shot at them, please send me

that information, so that, - Okay.

- we just, I wanna make sure that when it's time

to go to court, that everybody's real clear about how

dangerous he was, okay? - Yeah, mm-hmm.

(rain spattering)

- So the Harnett County judicial buildings are coming

up on the right-hand side.

The detention center's back behind the courthouse,

and that's where Latina is.

Where she's been since last, the end of last November.

And I've worked other cases with women who have killed

their abusers and they've told me that they feel safer

in prison than they ever felt out in the world, with him.

Because he was so predatory and the courts just didn't care.

I mean, I can think of all kinds of women

that I've talked to.

And they have told me that once she killed him, and she went

to prison, that was the first time in years she felt safe.

(rain spattering) (wind rustling)

- In general, when we're thinking about accepting a case,

one of the things we think about, one of the things I think

about, is, how am I gonna prove this case?

And if it has to go to trial,

how am I gonna prove the case at trial?

What is my evidence gonna be at trial and how will the jury

be affected by that evidence.

I mean, the pictures are just,

they say it better than any words can.

The fact that it seemed to be a very good, viable case

A Violence Against Women Act case.

The interstate domestic violence, we had the crossing

of the state lines, it seemed like if we didn't do it,

nobody else was going to.

Because there were a lot of times

she didn't know where she was.

So she didn't know whether a particular assault happened

in Oklahoma or New Mexico, but we knew that she had

been forcibly taken from here.

So we could prosecute it here, and if we didn't prosecute

it here, it may not have been prosecuted any place else.

Because we didn't know where the assaults were taking place.

So that also made it compelling, if we weren't gonna

do anything, then maybe nothing was gonna be done.

And something had to be done.

(slow guitar music)

- Hey there, we're just about there,

we're like five minutes away.

Alright, I'll see you in a few minutes, bye-bye.

We're gonna go talk with Deanna about how she's feeling

about court and about what's it going to mean to her,

to be able to take the witness stand.

And say out loud what Robbie did to her, and to Martina.

Are you nervous about testifying

or do you feel okay about it?

So what are you doing to prepare yourself?

- Just keep telling myself that I know I can do it.

And I've got a lot of people backing me up.

This is Deanna's thick file, her case file.

District Attorney said that a juror or defense attorney

may ask why she didn't call someone and ask for help.

And Robbie had told her not to pick up a phone

at the truck stop.

Stated that, many would argue that she had the chance

to get away in Virginia, when they stopped at

a truck stop for several hours.

- What do you think you'll say when his defense attorneys

try to say things to you like, "Why didn't you try

to get away?" Or, "Why didn't you call the police?"

Or something like that?

- I was too scared.

There was lots of things, ways, running through my mind.

Of how I could get away, but I couldn't do it.

I was afraid I would wake him up,

if Martina had made a noise.

He would have instantly woke up.

And she had coloring books and crayons, I thought

about tearing the back out of one of the coloring books

and writing help me, and sticking it behind the curtain.

Maybe people passing by on the interstate would see it.

And call the law, and then, again, I was afraid he would

see it and if he did see it, he would probably have

instantly killed me.

And I never knew what would happen to Martina.

- [Stacy] There were so many injustices

that I felt like happened with her.

Martina was removed in Oklahoma from Deanna.

And that just, that really angered me.

- What was it like when they came and took Martina?

- It destroyed me.

It took everything.

It was the hardest moment in my whole life.

- [Kit] I bet, and how often did you see Martina,

in the time that she was taken away from you?

- Twice a week, for an hour.

(slow music)

- Come here, come here.

(squealing) Piggyback, piggyback (squeals).

- Where are we going how?

I could talk to her on the phone every night.

- [Kit] What kinds of things did she say to you?

- Wanted to know why I gave her away.

And that, that was hard, that was really hard.

I would tell her that she was staying

with the foster parents so they could protect her.

(both laughing)

- I'm stuck, I'm stuck.

- She still asks me, now, she still asks me

why I gave her away.

- So she remembers it. - Yeah.

Wait up, wait up (laughs) wait up.

(birds chirping)

- [Man on recording] You don't understand, I'm not over it.

I'm not over y'all coming 'round there,

and they thought they're gonna testify against me.

I'm not over that shit.

I can't understand why my daughters would go against me.

Don't ever go against me!

You understand what I'm saying?

(crashing)

Fucking go against me!

Never go! (thudding)

Never fucking! (thudding)

Never! Never, Never! (smacking)

Fucking go against me!

Don't ever go

(smacking loudly) fucking against me!

- Okay. - You understand

what I'm saying? - Yes.

- [Man on recording] I kept having to get you

or my daughters, God damn it, I'd never do that to my dad.

What's wrong with y'all?

Now am I a person that you fuck with?

I mean, seriously, - No.

- [Man on recording] I mean, look, look at me.

Just look at my face.

(smacking) Is that a motherfucker

that you fuck?

(smacking)

Is that a fucker that you fuck with?

- [Woman on Recording] No.

- Is it? - No.

- Who's gonna take care of you?

- [Woman on Recording] You are.

- [Man on recording] Who's gonna fucking provide?

- [Woman on recording] You are.

- [Man on recording] Who's the son of a bitch

that's stands in front of the fucking monster

and keeps them from raping y'all?

- [Woman on recording] You did.

- I get calls from battered women all over the country.

And emails, and this one happens to be from a woman

who's married to a doctor, a very prominent physician.

And they made this tape

not long after there was a restraining order hearing,

but the female judge, who knew that he was a doctor,

said, "Just let him come home,

"your house is big enough for both of you."

And so it's just so frustrating because we don't know

what's going on in these gated communities,

in these expensive homes, until something like this happens.

So I tore this up.

I tore this up, because I was so angry about it.

It's a rough draft of a paper that I turned it recently.

And the professor wrote a note across the bottom.

So it made me mad and I tore it up.

(tape tearing)

Now I'm gonna put it back together again.

Kit, a very interesting discussion.

I have two recommendations, first, you say in the beginning

that domestic violence, quote,

"touches all socio-economic groups."

I am not an expert in this field,

but my impression is that domestic violence is more

common among poor, less educated people.

Most middle-class persons, such as doctors,

lawyers and professors, et cetera,

do not beat their wives and children.

Nice, nice, but I'm going to save this.

Because this is a reminder to me, that we have a long,

long, long way to go.

(both laughing) (bike tires grinding)

- Whee! Whoa! - Good.

This was my favorite photo of Martina.

It did have Robbie in it, and of course, I cut it out.

It's just her, now, so.

Read it, - First soccer practice.

Halloween, okay, I can't read that.

- Beware of ghosts and goblins.

- [Martina] Beware of ghosts and goblins.

(slow music) (people chattering)

- Halloween of 2008.

Deanna and her husband were separated.

There had been a domestic violence incident earlier

in the summer, they were living apart.

But, it was Halloween, and Deanna decided that she was gonna

ask Robbie if he wanted to go along with her

and their daughter, trick-or-treating in downtown

West Jefferson, North Carolina.

They drove down, together, to the downtown area.

But for some reason, Robbie didn't want

to get out of the car.

So Deanna took their daughter trick-or-treating.

And when she came back to the car, he was focused on the

fact that she may have been talking to another male

while they were trick-or-treating, and he became jealous.

And as the night progressed,

he was getting more angry and more angry.

He drove them down to a secluded area of a parking lot

outside of the local hospital.

And so he was confronting her, and hitting her,

and he eventually got out his lighter

and was hitting her ears with the lighter.

Basically trying to force her to confess

that she was involved with another man.

All the while, the daughter was asleep

in the back of the truck.

(mellow guitar music)

Finally, in the morning, the daughter woke up,

and Robbie announced that they were all taking

a cross-country truck trip.

He had a cousin who co-drove the truck with him,

so the arrangement was that he would meet his cousin,

John, to deliver this load to California.

They were being secret about this because the truck company

had a policy against unauthorized riders.

And Deanna and the daughter would be unauthorized riders.

(engine sputtering) They eventually all get in

to this tractor trailer.

They drove across the line from North Carolina

to Virginia, stopped at a truck stop.

Where, for a couple of hours, Robbie and John played

the video poker machines, while Deanna and the daughter

walked around the truck stop.

Deanna had no money, no cell phone, didn't know anybody

up there, so she didn't alert anyone

that she was there against her will.

She got back into the truck, they drove down into Tennessee.

And, again, Robbie becomes obsessed with this idea

that she's cheating on him, so he has John drive the truck.

He gets back in the cab, he just started beating on her

and it was like the night before, where he wanted to beat

her into confessing to cheating on him.

And, initially, she was saying, "No, I'm not.

"I'm not cheating on you."

And he would beat her some more.

Well, finally, she decided that that wasn't working,

so she was gonna admit to cheating on him,

hoping that that would get him to stop beating her.

So she started saying, "Yes, yes, I did cheat on you."

And then he started saying, "Well, who, with who?

Gimme some names."

And so she just started spouting off names of people

that they knew, so he forced her to use his phone.

To call these people, that she was naming,

back home in North Carolina.

And so, people back in North Carolina were getting

phone calls, in the middle of the night, where she admitted

that she had cheated on Robbie.

She called a husband and wife named the Guys,

told the wife, Hope, that she had cheated with Mike.

But eventually Hope could tell that something wasn't right.

Deanna's tone on the phone calls, she sounded robotic.

Hope got the impression that something was not right.

While the truck is traveling west, and Robbie is continuing

to beat Deanna, and accuse her of cheating on him,

people back home are starting to figure out that something

is wrong, and they call the trucking company.

And eventually alert them that there

are unauthorized people on the truck.

Well, 'til that happens, they get to California,

drop off the load, they head back east.

John's driving, they're heading towards Oklahoma.

And Robbie just, this is the absolute worst beating of all.

- [Deanna] He headed me back to the sleeper, of the truck,

and that's when he started hurting me the worst.

And Martina was sitting there, and he kept covering my face

with the pillow and he was telling me that I wasn't gonna

make it back to West Jefferson.

And I couldn't breathe, and when he realized that I wasn't

moving, he pulled the pillow off of my face.

And he started laughing and he said,

"I almost got you that time, didn't I?"

And it was right after that, that I started having

I had seizures, and I had three seizures.

And I could hear Martina screaming.

I couldn't see anything, I could just hear her screaming.

And when I did stop, he pulled me up,

next to Martina, and I went to sleep.

And that was the first time, the entire trip,

that I was able to sleep.

- Finally, the folks back at home had gotten in touch

with the trucking company, and they arranged for the truck

to be stopped. (siren blaring)

It was pulled over by law enforcement in Oklahoma,

but as the blue lights were turned on, Robbie told Deanna

that they were gonna tell the police when they

were stopped that he saved her, from a boyfriend back in

North Carolina who had beaten her.

- I had received a call that had a child in danger,

and we needed to do a traffic stop on a semi.

So that's what I did.

And when I found what I found inside,

was the little girl and the mother.

In the 15 years I've been a law enforcement officer,

I've never seen anybody that's been in a car wreck

that was beat up as bad as that girl was.

Even if they was throwed out of the vehicle, mangled up

in the vehicle, they still, I've never seen anybody

that was in that kind of shape.

I truly believe if I hadn't had stopped the vehicle,

I don't think they would have ever come home.

The reason he wasn't detained is because I didn't have

no proof of where it had actually happened.

I had no paperwork stating anything was out

of the ordinary or anything.

She wouldn't tell us who done it,

because of the fear factor.

I think she feared more for the child

than she did her own life.

That's why she didn't say.

- Once they were separated, once she was in the car,

and away from him, she told them that, in fact,

Robbie had been the one who had beaten her.

The police could tell that she was very badly beaten,

they took her to the hospital in Oklahoma.

- Deanna Howell presented at my Emergency Room

in Anadarko Hospital, in Anadarko Oklahoma.

When I first saw her, I was horrified by her appearance.

Obviously, with every movement that she made,

she was experiencing pain.

Initially, it was important for us to clean her up,

as she was covered in dried blood.

And when I felt her hair, it was very sticky

and very soiled, and I asked her,

at that point, what was in her hair.

Which she shared with me at that time,

it was Mountain Dew and urine.

And when I asked her

how that came to be,

she stated that he would throw his soda,

her ex-husband would throw his soda in her face.

And that whenever he had to urinate,

he would hold her by the ears and urinate in her face.

I took photos of Deanna in the Emergency Room,

she obviously was still in fear of her ex-husband.

And when I went out and asked the officer, could he please

tell me where her was ex-husband was located,

with the intent of finding out where he

was incarcerated, and being held at.

When he piped off to me that, "He's somewhere between here

and North Carolina, I guess."

- Robbie was left at the side of the road in Oklahoma

because she hadn't told police before he left

that he was the one who beat her,

and he made his way back to North Carolina.

Once he got back to North Carolina, he was interviewed

by law enforcement, and admitted to beating her so badly

that he almost broke his fingers, so.

(telephone ringing)

- Mm-hmm, I just wonder if somehow his cousin got to her.

Because, with his cousin not charged, he's really free

to do whatever, to intimidate you, or intimidate her.

And I just wonder if that's part of,

if that's part of what's happening.

I mean, it might not be, but it also might be.

So how's Martina?

- [Deanna] She's doing good (mumbling)

- Yeah, and that's gonna make it hard.

But, maybe what you can do is you can take those strong

feelings that you've got, and just really use those

to be crystal clear in court.

To just say the things

that you need to say, so the court

understands what he did to you.

Alright, well, Deanna, have a really good day,

and I'm glad you called, and I'll talk to you

in the next couple days, okay?

- Alright. - Alright, bye, Deanna.

- [Deanna] Bye.

- Fucking Robbie.

(wind chimes tinkling) (birds chirping)

Even with all the, there's a lot of dark things

that happen up here, like Deanna's case, but.

I do love these mountains.

That's Jack and Jason, that's October.

And he died the next August, cleaning up an oil spill

in the Gulf of Mexico.

I look at that picture of his hair shining in the sun.

And that was one of my jobs, was to take care of his hair,

to make sure he didn't have split ends.

So that when he went out (clearing throat) to go pick

up women, that one of the things that would draw women

to him was his long, blonde hair.

He had a beautiful smile.

- [Producer] You stayed with this guy.

- Yeah, I didn't have choice.

I mean, he told me, and I absolutely,

that's the part that always, it's so interesting to me.

When it's like, the standard question, why didn't you leave?

Why didn't you leave, why didn't you leave?

Well, he was trained by the United States Marine Corps

to hunt people down and kill them, and he told me if I left,

he would hunt me down and kill me.

That's why I didn't leave.

I used to pull what he would call my disappearing acts.

And that would be, I would get the boys and get out.

Because it just was getting too intense.

But I would always go back,

because at least I knew where he was.

At least I knew the routine, I knew what to expect.

But it's a terrible way to live to always

be looking over your shoulder.

He also had good sides, too, I mean, I remember,

being in the funeral home looking at his body.

And starting at the top of his head, and going down,

and thinking, looking at his hands and thinking

that his hands were both a weapon, and it was also

with his hands that he taught me how to garden.

So it's not clean, it's complicated.

There's just a lot more to it than people willing

to give women credit for.

This picture, that picture right there, that picture

was taken the last day that he was nice.

On that one day, it was a beautiful fall day,

and he said, "Let's go ride up on the parkway."

And it was just so out of the ordinary.

But I was thrilled, that we were gonna have a good day.

And it was a great day.

(slow music) (birds chirping)

- It was just confirmed that we were still on

and I'm told to be there at 8:30.

I am nervous about testifying.

I don't know, really, what, I don't know what's going on.

I guess I'll find out this morning.

Everybody's telling me to be strong, be truthful.

And that they're praying for me.

Yesterday, when I got up, there was just something inside

of me, just this feeling that I had, that I needed to,

after the trial is over, give Robbie a picture of Martina.

I just want him to know, pretty much, what he's missed.

And that he's missed a lot in the last two years.

I mean, his daughter is really growed up a lot.

And if he hadn't had done what he did,

he would have been there for it.

(tense music)

(footsteps clanking)

(light piano music)

I'm not gonna let him get away with what he done to me,

my daughter, to other women out there, who have,

I'm sure he's done it to.

Nobody should get away with this, nobody.

(door slamming)

(slow guitar music)

- I'm reading from a portion of the trial transcript.

The defense lawyer stated in his opening statement that what

really happened here was they went on a family trip.

And it was a trip that she was willing

to go on, and happy to go on.

The government, I, argued that it wasn't a voluntary trip.

That she was kidnapped and beaten along the way.

And that the jury should find him guilty of both counts,

the kidnapping and the interstate domestic violence.

The government called the nurse who saw Deanna in Oklahoma,

several of the people who had received strange phone calls

from Deanna during the trip.

Deanna, of course, testified.

- [Kit] When Deanna took the witness stand,

my heart was pounding.

Because I understood the consequences of this trial.

If he were to be found not guilty, he'd be back out on

the streets, and he'd be a threat to her again.

But when I see what Deanna has done, that she's faced

her abuser, she's walked into federal court,

she's taken the witness stand.

I'm just completely astonished at her courage.

- The jury made their decision of guilty on both counts,

and I feel absolutely awesome (laughs).

I could feel the tears coming, they didn't actually start

falling, but I could feel them coming.

They wanna come now (laughs).

I am so happy.

I will be glad to get home to Martina.

- I'll be glad for you to get home to Martina,

I know she wants her mom home.

- Yes, she does. - Yeah.

Robbie was sentenced to almost 21 years in federal prison.

But the sad and tragic reality, is that the majority

of the time he serves will be for kidnapping Deanna,

not for beating her.

I can't help thinking about the fact that, after Robbie

kidnapped Deanna, and almost killed her.

That when she came back, she had to listen to the DAs,

to the police, to the defense attorney,

and even her own family ask her why she didn't just leave.

When, in reality, that's precisely what she did do.

She left, and he retaliated by kidnapping her,

and beating her for 4 1/2 days.

So she did what everyone wanted her to do.

And she almost paid for it with her life.

(slow guitar music)

I've been training advocates for a lot of years.

Since the early, since 1990.

And I'm always so astonished

and moved at the people who want to come into this movement,

and do this work, because it's not easy work.

It can be heartbreaking and frustrating,

but it can also be unbelievably uplifting.

And you see things, and hear things

that you couldn't make up.

And you witness victims shedding that skin,

and just leaving the violence behind.

It's just wonderful.

- We are at a place that I'm looking at hoping to rent.

A new step, a new beginning.

Getting out of my parents house.

And starting over, a new life.

- The inside the house.

That blind does not pull straight anyway.

Well, the lady said to tell you she's packing up,

moving, so there's stuff sitting around.

This is the bedroom, stuff sitting in here.

And the chest of drawers.

And self-cleaning oven, you have a refrigerator,

washer and dryer, commode.

Big, good shower, tub.

That's it, plus the beautiful view.

- Yes, I've already saw that, I love it.

- Parkway that way, Grandfather Mountain, that way.

You can see Grandfather Mountain today.

Some days you can't see it, when it gets real hazy,

but you can see it good today.

- [Deanna] I love it.

It's perfect.

(mellow guitar music)

(uplifting music)

(tone reverberating) (static huming)