Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - DRUNK MOMMY LEAVES HER 5-YEAR-OLD TOT GIRL DEAD IN BACK SEAT!

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

A 5-year-old girl is dead after her mother allegedly drives drunk. Nory Lam's car was found after the rollover crash that left Aleah Reyes dead. Lam sustained minor injuries. The 26-year-old mom was arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence of alcohol, and transporting an open container of alcohol.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Tim and Michelle Nagel - Parents of Caila Nagel James Shelnutt - 27 years Atlanta Metro Area Major Case Detective, Swat officer Lawyer www.ShelnuttLawFirm.com Dr. Alan Blotcky Ph.D. - Clinical Psychologist (Birmingham) specializing in Family, Divorce, and Criminal Cases  Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet" featured on "Poisonous Liaisons" on True Crime Network Alex Otte - MADD National President, madd.org, @maddpresident  Kristy Mazurek - Emmy Award-winning Investigative Reporter, President of Successful Strategies PR and Crisis Communications Firm Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On early Sunday mornings across our country, a lot of people are getting up and getting ready and rousting their children and shaking the house out like a rug to get everybody to church and Sunday school on time. A lot of people are having their morning coffee and reading the paper. You don't really think about a mommy drunk, stinking drunk, slamming into a crash, killing a five-year-old little girl. At least I don't when I wake up on a Sunday morning. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Take a listen to our friends at KAKE-TV News, Wichita. This morning, a five-year-old girl is dead following an overnight car crash southeast of Wichita. That crash happened just after three this morning. They're 47th and 127th. Sheriff's County, uh, Sedgwick County Sheriff's deputies rather say a woman in her mid twenties was driving on 47th when she somehow crashed that car just west of 127th street. Now her daughter was a passenger in the car and died on the scene. Investigators do say that alcohol might be involved and that mother is expected to be booked into the jail on unknown scene. Investigators do say that alcohol might be involved and that mother is

expected to be booked into the jail on unknown charges. Unknown charges? Really? I got a pretty good idea what those charges are going to be. And you know what always kills me? It kills me. To you, before I can even introduce everybody, let me go to Alex Otte, Mothers Against Drunk Driving National President. You can find Alex at Mad President, M-A-D-D. Alex, why do we act like, wow, what happened? And I hate when it's called an accident. It is no accident. Did you notice, and no offense to our friends at KAKETV News Wichita, they said somehow she had a crash. Well, I can tell you how. She was drunk as a skunk. That's how she had a crash, Alex. Well, thank you so much for saying that. You're absolutely right in that it's not an accident. It's a choice and it is a crime. And we need to call it what it is but we see an alarming number of adults

getting behind the wheel after consuming alcohol or drugs with their children in the car guys let me rewind and introduce an all-star panel joining us christy mizzurich you know her name well emmy award-winning investigative reporter and president of Successful Strategies PR and Crisis Communications Firm. Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University. Author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon. Star of a brand new hit series on the True Crime Network. Poisonous Liaisons. Death Investigator, Joseph Scott Morgan.

Clinical psychologist joining us. This guy has been around the block, knows what he's talking about. It's Dr. Alan Blotke, James Shelnut, 27 years Metro major case, SWAT officer, now lawyer at ShelnutLlawfirm.com. Special guest joining us, Alex Otte, president of MAD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving National. And two very special guests I'm really looking forward to hearing from. Tim Nagel and Michelle Nagel, the parents of Kayla Nagel, who is standing by, sitting by with them, now in a wheelchair after being hit by a drunk driver. It is a miracle from heaven that this girl is alive and sitting with her parents right now to speak out against drunk driving.

But you know what? Five-year-old Alaya Reyes can't do that. She's dead. Thanks, Mommy. To you, Christy Mazurek, what happened? Well, you pointed to the fact of what happened. I mean, the mom, Nori Lamb, is charged with manslaughter, driving under the influence, and transporting an open container of alcohol.

So that kind of led some credence to the DUI in the reports. And the community was horrified to learn the report details that this kindergartner was out and about in a car with her drunk mother who was drinking in the car at three o'clock in the morning. Reports coming out of that area are saying, you know, the girl might have been out and about at an obvious another location with her mom late Saturday evening, and mom was returning home when she lost control of the car and slammed into a concrete culvert,

and the girl died at the scene. I'm very curious where this woman had been because this, they keep referring to it as an accident. It's no accident when you choose to drink, then choose to get your keys and get in your car, crank it up, put it in reverse, back off, take off, much less with your baby in the car. I'm very curious if the baby had been seat belted. Because why did mommy live and baby died? But they're calling it an accident. I'll call it a crash. During the investigation, deputies discover evidence indicating alcohol contributed to the accident. More investigative efforts determine PC probable cause existed to arrest and book nori

lamb driving under the influence transporting open container of an alcoholic beverage you know what that means it means she was drinking and really couldn't even put the drink down to drive she had to have an open drink in the car. Shelnut, you're the defense lawyer. That's what that means. Open container of alcoholic beverage. She couldn't even leave it at the bar or the party. She had to drive literally while drinking, not driving under the influence, but driving under the influence plus getting a snoot full while she's driving. Yeah, you know, I look at this from all different angles, from the law enforcement angle, from the prosecution angle, defense angle, you know, from the defense angle. And I don't want you mad at me when I say this.

From the defense angle. I'm already mad. When you cue it up like that, you know I'm going to be mad. Go ahead. From the defense angle, we don't know how long that open container had been in the car. I mean, it could be from days earlier. It could be a loose top on a liquor bottle. It could be a beer can that had a

fraction of beer in the back seat. We don't know that it was from this night. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. A mom arrested after a rollover crash that killed her five-year-old little girl around 3.15 a.m on a sunday morning in a rural

area southwest of wichita you know what is she doing drinking at 3 15 in the morning now shell nut wants you to believe that was left over why was it in the car, though? What about that? To Dr. Alan Blotke, Ph.D., clinical psychologist joining us out of the Birmingham jurisdiction, Dr. Blotke, I need a shrink. Because, you know, before I had the children, I did all kind of crazy things. I'd scuba dive. I was looking at an oxygen chamber to try to get over a scuba accident on the other side of the world for Pete's sake. I'd drive fast. I'd go into all kinds of bad neighborhoods looking for witnesses at night unarmed. You name it. Didn't matter. Didn't care. But now that I have the twins, I've never scuba dived again. And I'm sure as heck, I'm not going to do anything to take me away from those twins what die and leave my husband to marry some tramp to raise my children no that's not going to happen

willingly on my part n o so what happens in the minds of moms and dads let's just not limit it to moms, where after they have children, they still behave recklessly and wantonly. Well, I'll tell you this. Probably what happens in this case and other cases is that they go in with good intentions, but after you start drinking and you've had two and you've had four and you've had six, what that affects is your decision-making and your judgment, and all that goes out the window, and then you do terrible things. I just want to say one other thing. We haven't heard about what her blood alcohol level was. That will tell the story.

Yeah, you're right. But under the law, Dr. Blotke, even if she was not DUI per se if she didn't even reach the legal limit if she was driving impaired at all and for I'm just betting you money

that baby was not in a seatbelt why did mommy live the baby died I would also like to know did she call the police or an ambulance after the accident? Because the reporting is that she had minor injuries. So did she make an effort to call an ambulance or the police? Good point. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about a five-year-old little girl, absolutely beautiful.

Dead. Why? Mommy drunk and driving. Her vehicle does a rollover, 3 and you know i'm looking at a mug shot right now i don't like her attitude she's like i don't like that for pete's sake your child is dead and you're looking like all po'd because you are in a mug shot i don't like that right there of course i'm sure a good defense attorney can explain all that away. I would argue she's still drunk. You know, I just heard Dr. Alan Blotke, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, esteemed, renowned in his field, joining me from Birmingham. You know, I want to go to Michelle and Tim Nagel, the mother and father of Keala Nagel, now in a wheelchair because of a drunk driver. Did you hear Blotky say, good intentions?

Good intentions. You know what my grandmother always said? Road to hell, paved with good intentions. You can take those good intentions right to the supper table with the devil. And that is exactly what this woman has done. Good intentions, my rear end. Out with your five-year-old little girl getting a snoot fill. What's a good intention of that, Michelle Nagel? I don't care about what they intended.

I care about what happened. Right, we agree. Yeah, it's sad, you know, when somebody gets behind the wheel of a car and decides to drink, and they don't understand the repercussions that doing that could cause a family. I mean, our lives have been turned upside down. Our daughter can no longer walk. We're trying to get her there, trying to get her to speak louder. She had a severe traumatic brain injury. All the sports, she was a freshman playing for varsity, for volleyball. And she just had everything going for her. And it's,

it has not only turned Kayla's life upside down, it's turned our lives upside down and her friends and family. So it impacts a lot of people. And I don't think people realize when they get behind the wheel of a car, you have to be careful because you can hurt another family a lot. Mrs. Alex, and I want to speak to the good intentions. Yes. Every child deserves a designated driver. Children don't have a voice or a choice when riding with an adult,

and yet those entrusted to keep children safe are all too often the same people who put them in danger by driving drunk. I was 13 when an adult man made the choice. His intention may have been to have a good time that day, but his choice led to my near death. His choice led to me living with one leg. So I don't frankly care what his intention was. I care what the consequence was. And I'm the one that was left to suffer it. I'm just hearing what Alex Otte is saying, the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving National Organization, Tim Nagel, Michelle Nagel, the parents of Kayla Nagel. And right now, just lifting up a prayer for God to bless Kayla and her family and give her strength and the resolution she needs to move forward and that they need to help her over the years to come. You know, Joe Scott Morgan,

you heard Alex Adi. A crash is not an accident. How much alcohol do you need to drink to be even impaired i don't mean drunk to the legal limit which has now been lowered to 0.08 but to be impaired well to be impaired uh essentially you know like you said 0.08, that's generally in most states, that's going to be the legal level for intoxication. But if you're just talking, say, around 0.03, you're still going to have people that are going to lose at that point in time things like social inhibition. They'll be totally relaxed, almost like a narcotic to a certain degree. They'll be real talkative, this sort of thing. But what follows after that are things like diminished ability to react. Say, for instance, if something appears in front of you, you can't react in time while you're driving, or you can't imagine if you have blinders on, you know, and and you try to dodge something and you wind up overcompensating, which probably happened in this case, since it was a rollover type event.

You're going to jerk the wheel very, very hard. And so the vehicle will begin to to roll. So you don't have to be at point zero eight in order to have these impacts relative to how this alcohol is affecting you. And what's very disturbing about this, Nancy, and I'll go back to this, is the fact that she's got an open container in the vehicle with her, which, you know, if you're thinking about this, I'm not talking about inside the courtroom. I'm talking about from a logical application. She's got alcohol on board in her system. And on top of that, she's still taking on alcohol as she is under, she's the custodial parent here.

She's in charge of this little girl's life. And one more thing, and this is what I'll have to say. You had mentioned that these are referred to as accidents, and then you said, I'm going to call it a crash. Nancy, this is homicide. This is one human being bringing about the death of another human being. There doesn't have to be intent here. This is a homicide and it should be treated that way. And unfortunately, we have all of these people that run around over and over and over. How many cases do we cover where there are people that have multiple DUI offenses nationwide

and they still have a license? They're still not penalized because they don't get slapped down hard enough. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of statistics on that. I'm going to go to Alex Otte, the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving National. Alex, I'm always floored when I hear the stat. How does it go? For every DUI arrest, how many times do we extrapolate a perp has been drinking in the past and not gotten caught? Well, I want to agree first with the people that I've spoken before. It is a violent, 100% preventable crime. And the statistic is that the average drunk driver has driven drunk more than 80 times before their first offense, before they are arrested the first time.

Well, yeah, it did me, Alex. I thought it was 70-something. It's 80. Go ahead, dear. So while we may see a first offense DUI, that is not the first time that they have driven drunk. And I want to add that when he was talking about how impairment can happen as low as 0.03, I want to say that that is why you make a plan before you take the first drink. That is why if you're going to consume alcohol at all,

if your plans include alcohol, your plans do not need to include driving. You need to make a plan before the first drink. That would be the best intention is to have a plan before the drinking begins. You know, I was speaking to actually one of the children's former babysitters. I had two babysitters that would sit with them

so one could watch the twins and the other could watch the babysitter watching the twins. Because in my mind, I thought it was safer to have two babysitters rather than one. Anyway, I called him recently and said, so Mr. Chris, what's going on? And he went, oh, I've got to go drive my new boss this weekend. And his boss happens to be a former police officer that I knew very, very well,

a motor man, a motorcycle. And I said, why are you driving? What do you mean you've got to drive him? I know a cop's retirement or does not afford a driver. He goes, oh, well, he and his wife are going out to dinner this weekend. They know they're going to have a few drinks. He doesn't want to drive. So I'm going to drive him. You know, it doesn't have to be that complicated. There's Uber. You don't have to have a driver. You just have to have that app on your phone, much less dragging your five-year-old little girl along with you. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

For those of you just joining us, a five-year-old little girl. Oh, my goodness. She's so, so sweet, so innocent, so beautiful. Five years old. I'm just thinking about the twins at five years old. Oh, dear Lord. My husband insisted that they go to preschool.

They started that around three. Oh, how I would cry. They would cry. We'd all cry. I'd sit out in the car, even go up and look in the window. At first, the teachers were afraid. They got used to it. So I could see what was going on in there.

Five years old, so tender, so defenseless. As Alex Otte with Mothers Against Drinking and Driving pointed out, they don't have a choice who's driving them or whether mommy puts their seatbelt on. Who wants a drunk mommy? Nobody. Take a listen to our friends at KSN-TV News Wichita. This is Emily Younger. A mother arrested, accused of killing her young daughter in an early morning-TV News Wichita. This is Emily Younger. A mother arrested, accused of killing her young daughter

in an early morning crash southeast of Wichita. Nori Lamb was booked into jail on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, DUI, and transporting an open container. A lieutenant with the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office says Lamb was driving near 47th Street South and 127th Street East when her SUV went off the road and rolled. Lamb had minor injuries. Her five-year-old daughter, Aaliyah Reyes, died.

Lamb's bond is set at $25,000. Guarantee you the baby was not in a seatbelt, because still the dichotomy, mommy lives, baby dies, on the scene, doesn't even make it to the hospital. And let me just clarify to you, James Shelnut, former cop, 27 years, Metro major case, including SWAT, now lawyer, ShelnutLawFirm.com. She is charged with DUI, driving under the influence, not impaired driving, which could be a.03 or a.02.

She's charged with DUI. And in this jurisdiction, Kansas, the legal limit for blood alcohol, BAC, is.08. And that's very, very strictly proven. Got a good friend, former prosecutor, misdemeanor prosecutor, now very successful defense lawyer. That was his specialty. Beating the blood alcohol. That's right. If the cop does anything wrong, taking that blood alcohol test, it's thrown out and you've got nothing left to put in front of a jury. What did you say? I thought

she was drunk. No, you've got to show the blood alcohol was properly taken. The breathalyzer was done properly. Then it was transported properly. It was researched and determined scientifically properly or else it's thrown out of evidence, just like all other scientific evidence. A jury will never hear it, and you lose your case because you can't prove it. Just like we've been talking about, was she drunk? We don't know. What's her blood alcohol? We know this.

It's scientifically proven to be at least.08. What about that, shell nut? Put that in your pipe and smoke it. So, yeah, you're right. I remember from when I was a police officer, you know, working DUI cases. I want to say that there's over 30 different individual steps from the time that the person is stopped until the time that they are placed into jail. An officer has to check all of those lists. And if they don't check those lists, and that includes, you know, properly reading the person, their implied consent rights, properly handling the intox, once you get to the police department, properly documenting everything. If everything was done correctly in this case and it was.08 per se, per se simply means that they don't have to prove anything else other than that you were at that limit because you are presumed by the court.

You were declared by the law to be DUI, and that's a big deal. You know, she's charged right now, according to the news reports, with involuntary manslaughter. What you see a lot of times in these cases is that that involuntary manslaughter charge can be upgraded as high as a murder charge. And I'm not so sure that the prosecutor's office is quite done with her yet. Well, I can only pray, you know, to Tim and Michelle Nagel. This is Kayla's mother. Kayla now in a wheelchair after being hit by a drunk driver, battling back to some degree of normalcy, God willing. When you hear us haggling back and forth, Tim and Michelle, I know it seems superfluous, maybe even silly. because what's the difference between.08 and.03 when you're dealing with helping your daughter reclaim her life every day?

But it does matter. It matters because the person behind the wheel needs to be stopped. And if a cop comes in and they somehow did not perform the blood alcohol, the breathalyzer correctly, and I have to throw that case out, what am I going to tell the victim's family? Right. That was one concern that we had when we met with the prosecutor. I think the defense attorney was trying to have that evidence suppressed. So that was a huge concern for us when going to court, you know, because they were trying to have it suppressed. I believe we had a rookie cop who took the test. But I mean,

eventually everything worked out. But that was a huge concern for us. Guys, you're hearing from the Nagel family. Their daughter, Kayla, was the victim of a DUI crash, and it has affected their family more than anyone can know. Back to the DUI aspect of this case, I also want to talk about the fact that not only was the baby in the car, I believe, not buckled into a seatbelt, but what are they doing out? Do we have any idea to Christy Mazurek, Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter, what mommy was doing out with the baby at 3 o'clock in the morning? Follow-up investigations, and they're backtracking where she had been, are leading police now

that she was out and about on Saturday evening with friends and brought the little girl along. So when she started, you know, Saturday night, it continued into Sunday morning, and, you know, I guess she wanted a couple last swigs on their way home and brought one to go. A to-go cup. That's what the most recent, recent cop reports are saying. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, this is not the first mommy to drive a drunk.

Take a listen to our friends at the Today Show NBC. Jeff Ross. Brian Shuler was only five when his mother, sister, and cousins were all killed in a violent crash. Brian was the lone survivor. Mommy was Diane Shuler. She drove the family minivan the wrong way on New York's Taconic Parkway, slamming into an SUV, killing all three inside the SUV, headed to their own family dinner. The Shuler family was decimated too. Diane and her daughter were killed, along

with all her brother's kids, three young sisters. The kid's not moving. Yeah, there's a whole bunch of kids. Honestly, the car smashed. Just moments before the accident, one of the kids called home, worried. Toxicology reports show Diane Shuler was high on drugs and drunk behind the wheel, more than double the legal limit. Guys, we were talking about a horrific crash, and I won't say accident, because the mother, in this case, Nori Lamb, was DUI, at least.08 blood alcohol for a DUI charge. The victim, her little five-year-old girl, Aaliyah Reyes, now dead, dead at the scene.

As I was saying, she's by far the first mommy Aaliyah Reyes, now dead, dead at the scene. As I was saying, she's by far the first mommy to drive drunk and kill her own children. Take a listen to our friend Andrew Canning at GMABC. Before Shuler got onto the highway where she made the fatal wrong turn, witnesses say she was driving erratically along this road, weaving in and out of traffic and honking her horn. So what was wrong? Tuesday, police revealed an answer. Diane Shuler had a blood alcohol content of 0.19%. She'd had the equivalent of 10 drinks,

elevating her blood alcohol level to almost two and a half times the legal limit. Investigators recovered a broken 1.75 liter bottle of vodka. Toxicology also reveals that Diane Shuler had a high level of THC in her blood. THC is the active ingredient contained in marijuana. Let me circle back to Alex Otte, Mothers Against Drunk Driving National President. Alex, we earlier heard James Shelnut, former cop, now defense attorney, arguing maybe the open container of alcohol in Nori Lamb's car was from a previous day. Well, here we see the same thing in the earlier case where there was a broken bottle of vodka. I mean, I don't need anybody to add two plus two for me to get four. You have a crash, you 0.08 at least blood alcohol

you got an open container of booze in your car i mean it's so obvious it was a to-go cup she hadn't had enough she wanted more with her daughter right there and regardless no matter when no matter where no matter why she should not have had an open container in the car. It doesn't matter if it was from a previous incident. The open container in the car is against the law. And she should not have had an open container in her car ever. But the fact that no one should have an open container in their car and the fact that someone is intoxicated as well as having an open container, I mean, I agree with you two plus two, but there are open container laws regardless of when or why.

Have you ever noticed, Joe Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, you've been on your death investigator, you've been on so many scenes. I've noticed repeatedly the drunk person lives and the innocent person dies. Why is that? Well, one of the things is that as the more intoxicated you are, essentially the ethanol, the alcohol itself acts as a relaxant in your body. So you're totally relaxed. So let's say, for instance, when you're driving down the road, and I know a lot of people in our audience can identify with this, how many

people have been hit or you see an accident coming at you. One of the things, if you're, you know, not inebriated, you're going to grab the steering wheel very tightly. You're going to tense up every muscle in your body so that when you get hammered by an oncoming vehicle or you're running off the road, you're so tense that you're going to wind up with multiple contusions and potentially broken bones, head injuries, all that stuff. Hey, man, when you're intoxicated, you're on the verge of being sedated. So you're totally relaxed. So you're just going to kind of float about. Now, you're going to get dinged up and banged up. And a lot of these people do, in fact, get killed. But you've got a higher probability of surviving that accident because you're in kind of a relaxed state at that point

in time. Alex Otte, MAD National President, you stated earlier that this is no accident. I agree with you because I believe, just as I would have to prove intent mens rea under the law, malice aforethought, even if it was just for a few moments before a death, I would argue to a jury that every single decision was intentional and leading up to a death. The decision to drink, the decision to get your keys and walk to your car, the decision to crank up, put it in reverse, put it in drive, go out onto an open roadway. All of those are intentional decisions and voluntary use of drugs or alcohol is not a defense under the law. So you can't claim, well, that's why I made these decisions. It's intentional. It's just like me picking up a

gun and shooting Jackie right here in the studio. You're absolutely right. And what you said about making a series of choices, I can speak to my case, of course. And do I believe that the man who ran me over set out that morning to try and kill me? No, of course not. He didn't know me. But I do believe that he made a series of choices one of which involved consuming a large amount of alcohol that led to my near death and loss of my leg and so i believe that it is a series of choices there's nothing accidental about that it is a serious crime drunk driving is one of the leading causes of death among our nation's children and more than half of children killed in drunk driving crashes are killed by their own drinking driver. Alex, how has being a victim of a drunk driver and losing

your leg, how has that affected your life? There's no way in which it hasn't affected my life. I struggle a lot with the fact that the man who ran me over got off and so he gets to forget. There will never be a single second that I get to forget what he did to me because I have a traumatic brain injury and I wake up and put a leg on every morning. And so there's absolutely no part of my life that it hasn't affected. And for that reason, I wanted to be the last little girl that this ever happened to. And I know more than 10 years later and from this conversation today that I wasn't. But we at MADD and me, myself personally, will continue to fight until that day comes, until there is a last victim of drunk driving. This is by far the first or the last drunk driving incident that causes a death or

in Keala Nagel's case, a life altering injury. Take a listen to Chris Holmstrom at KCAL 9. One of the boys was pronounced dead on the scene. The other died at the hospital. She's a well-known figure in the community. She even appeared on cake out nine news at noon last year to help raise funds for charity. It really is, you know, about collaborating. She's the founder and chair of the

Grossman Burn Foundation. She's also been recognized for her humanitarian work across the world. Now she's faced with two counts of vehicular manslaughter. Authorities say she was driving under the influence. It's senseless

because it could have been avoided simply by using Uber Lyft, even calling a taxi. She's been in the community for over a decade. She's Now she's faced with two counts of vehicular manslaughter. Authorities say she was driving under the influence. It's senseless because it could have been avoided simply by using Uber or Lyft, even calling a friend. And now there will be two Westlake families that are going to be affected by this for generations. Captain Becerra also told me Grossman did not stay on the scene and was arrested a quarter mile up the road. She was booked on a $2 million bail. And authorities believe there's also a second vehicle involved. That's all part of this investigation. Plowing into a family of six, killing family members, then fleeing the

scene. A well-known socialite. Does it never end? Mommies that drive a drunk, in this case, little Alea Reyes, dead, to Tim and Michelle Nagel, standing by now with their daughter, Kiela, also a drunk driving victim. What is your message today, Nagel family? We would just love if everybody could just when they get in the car make sure you're responsible you can um just follow the law uh you can truly destroy a family and a lot of people by choosing to get behind the wheel drunk and, uh, or high or on pain medicine or whatever it is that impairs a driver.

And, you know, we lost our daughter. She is physically here, but, um, she's, she's not. And when a doctor told us that you'll never have your old Kayla back, she'll never be the same. And we're just holding on the faith that we're getting her back and we're focusing everything on her and trying to get her better. And it's hard for a mom, dad to sit here and watch just the opportunities that she had for her future. It's all, it's stolen.

And because, you know, when somebody gets behind the wheel of a car, you just need to make sure you're responsible. Michelle Nagel, I know after the murder of my fiancee often i would wake up in the morning and just about maybe one or two seconds i would think everything was okay then it would hit me what what was happening do you ever wake up and think it's before the crash? Sometimes yes but I feel like our life right now is just so consumed with you know therapy and just you know trying to make sure that she gets better. Sometimes it's you know, for us to remember how it was before the crash. You know, just miss her every day.

I'm sorry. And we do, we have a lot of video. We always have a video camera on us. So from when they were born, all three of our kids, we have just videos we can watch. And before we went to court, it was really tough looking through all the videos, pictures of her being born for the accident. It just, it rips your heart out. And then basically we made the video for court just to present to the judge to where, look, this is my precious daughter. Her life was stolen by someone that was drinking and driving. So as a parent, it's really hard to deal through all this

and a lot of other stuff behind the scenes that we're dealing with. But we're going to just thank God. I couldn't imagine doing it without God. To Christy Mazur, Joe Scott Morgan, Dr. Alan Blotke, James Shelnut, Alex Auty, I know you heard everything the Nagels just said. All of us and all of you listening, we have our work cut out for us, don't we? Keep the faith, friends.