Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Erbie Bowser: Salt deficiency blamed for Texas killing spree

Episode Date: May 3, 2017

A doctor says an ex-Dallas Mavs cheerleader was driven insane by a “perfect storm” of a high school football brain injury, PTSD from military service and low sodium levels. Lawyers for Erbie Browser are using the diagnosis to defend the Texas man against charges he killed four women in a two-city shooting rampage. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke discuss the unusual defense in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Former special education teacher killed his 43-year-old girlfriend, Toya Smith, and her daughter. And then 15 minutes later, Bowser was accused of shooting his estranged wife, Zena Bowser, and her daughter. Jurors heard Nima Williams' terrified whispers, captured in a frantic call to 911. 911, what's going on in there? 911, 911? No warning, no nothing. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Chilling 911 calls in the murder trial for former Mavs maniac Herbie Bowser. Williams' younger brothers told jurors that the family turned off the lights and hid. Oh my God! Please no! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! For Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. For Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, I'm Alan Duke. We're following the case of Irby Browser, a Dallas, Texas man on trial for killing four women and wounding several other people in a series of shooting rampages nearly four years ago. Browser is not your normal serial killer. Basketball fans in Dallas know him as the 400-pound cheerleader for the NBA Mavericks

male dance team. His nickname? E-Love. But there was no love the night of August 7, 2013, when Browser allegedly invaded the home of his ex-girlfriend, fatally wounding her and her teenage daughter. He then drove to the nearby Dallas suburban town of DeSoto, Texas, on a hunt for his ex-wife. Police say he tossed a grenade at her door as he ran in, shooting. He shot the ex-wife and her daughter. They both died. He also wounded her 14-year-old son and a family friend. The shooting stopped only after Browser apparently ran out of ammunition. When police arrived on the scene, they said it looked like a war zone. Browser faced down on the floor, apparently pretending to be a victim.

When they first questioned him, Browser kept repeating his name, his Army rank, and serial number. He served in the U.S. Army for nine years back in the 90s, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant before he was booted out of the military for being overweight. He stands six foot seven and once weighed 650 pounds, although he more recently weighed in at just 400. After leaving the military, Browser became a special education teacher, working for a Texas school district from 2001 to 2010. What makes Browser's trial especially sensational is his defense. His lawyers argue he's not guilty because he was insane. A brain injury, suffered playing high school football, post-traumatic stress disorder from his time as a soldier, and Nancy, get this, a low level of

sodium in his blood combined to mess up his mind and turn him into a serial killer. First, there was the Twinkie defense. Then we had the PMS defense. Now we have the low sodium intake defense. Oh yes, I'm not kidding. Four people are dead. Four body bags. The defense, low sodium. That's salt. Soy sauce. That's what I'm talking about. Alan, what? Low sodium?

It's not just low sodium. This gets even more bizarre because the defense for this guy, and this is in Dallas, Texas. He's 48-year-old Irby Bowser. They say that it was a perfect storm in his brain that caused him to kill four women, including girlfriends and an estranged wife, and he injured several of the kids in a couple of attacks back in 2013. Alan, stop, please. Okay, so he just happened to have a low sodium, let me just say, spell. When he was around women that had likely rejected him, an ex-wife, an ex-girlfriend, or girlfriend, so suddenly when he's around them, he goes low-sod. Okay, go ahead.

It caused an insanity, this perfect storm. Not just along with the low sodium. They said when he was in high school, he suffered a brain injury while playing football, and he has a shrunken hippocampus. In addition to that, he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome disorder from service in the U.S. Army. But like me, I was in the Army. He never saw combat. So how did that happen? But this created a perfect storm in his brain that justifies this plea of not guilty, but insane. So, okay, he's claiming an old football injury. You know, hold on, wait a minute.

One time I pulled my hamstring when I was doing a backflip into a split as a cheerleader. I wonder if that would work. Nancy, it's not in your brain. Your tendon is not in your brain. If I hire this defense attorney, it might be. Okay, so he had a football injury, then low sodium intake. That happened to manifest when he's around his ex-wife and his girlfriend. Was she an ex-girlfriend or a girlfriend?

It was his ex-wife and an estranged girlfriend who were the targets of this perfect storm. Will you quit? Okay, stop. Stop. Stop. Stop this perfect storm. Will you quit? Okay, stop. Stop. Stop. Stop saying perfect storm. Okay. That's what the defense said. I'm mocking it. Quit calling it a perfect storm. That is a lie. Well, actually, it's a doctor, Dr. Tony Strickland. He's a neuropsychologist and chief executive officer of the Sports Concussion Institute. He said the combination of those three issues created a neurobehavioral perfect storm that gave rise to this tragic event.

Unquote. How much was he paid? You mean these four tragic events? These four tragic events, these four tragic events. I want to pause and thank our sponsor, our partner today, making our podcast possible. It's simply safe. And I want to share something, a story I heard out of Racine, Wisconsin. A house catches on fire, nobody's home. Took a while for neighbors to even notice the problem. At the end of the day, $40,000 in damages. $40,000.

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Who are the victims? Tell me again. You've got the ex-wife. It was an ex-wife that he told this psychiatrist that he had been having frequent nightmares about choking her in his sleep. And that was one of them. Her name was Zinna Bowser, and they were actually married. She's 47 years old. Also, there was her 28-year-old daughter. Let me jump in right here. To claim a temporary insanity, that means you have a sudden uncontrollable

impulse. If you're having dreams about murdering someone, that is going to work against the theory of a sudden uncontrollable impulse. I mean, he's been dreaming, he's been thinking about strangling this woman, killing her so much, he's actually dreaming about it now. All right? It could be that perfect storm, Nancy. Oh, he's gone with the storm.

You're just like one of those trained parrots. You give it a cracker and then forever from that moment on, on once it tastes the softest cracker, that's it. That's all he can say. Okay? That was actually pretty good, Alan. That's it. That's all we can say. Perfect story. What? Okay. That was actually pretty good, Alan. Along with the 47-year-old ex-wife, Zena, her daughter, 28-year-old Nima Williams, was killed. That was August 2013.

Also killed, Toya Smith, 43, her daughter, 17-year-old Tasmia Allen. Addition to the victims, the ones that survived. I guess that's the girlfriend. Yes, the girlfriend, Toya Smith. Also shot Storm Malone, Smith's son, her daughter's friend, Dasmond Mitchell, along with Zena Bowser's two young sons. Somehow in all of that, it got lost in the top. I think you're saying a strange life her daughter girlfriend and her daughter or friend i think it's what you're trying to say so for women you know what it's starting to sound more and more like a misogynistic hate crime many many years ago he has a football injury now for the first time after thinking about murdering his ex so much,

he starts dreaming about it. He suddenly goes low-so, low-sodium, and he murders four women. Yeah, I'm not buying the temporary insanity any more than I bought the Twinkie defense or the PMS defense. No, no. What about PTSD? According to the defense lawyers, he was acting out a military delusion in the shootings that happened at night. What's the delusion? That he was in a military,

on a military mission. What is his military background? What's his army background? Did he ever see action? Oh, he saw some action in the chow hall. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2000 for being overweight. He currently weighs 400 pounds, but once weighed 650 pounds. There's no way he saw action. How can he have PTSD if he never saw action? You know what? Now that's really making me mad because now not only did he kill four innocent women, he's now besmirching everybody that has ever served in our country by claiming this ridiculous PTSD.

I totally agree with the PTSD defense, post-traumatic stress syndrome, especially for vets. But this guy never saw anything but the end of the chow line. He may be a victim of Hamburger Hill, but not the actual battle Hamburger Hill. You know, my backstore neighbor, Mr. Talbert, was on Hamburger Hill. And I will never forget, he had three daughters and a son, and his wife goes to our church in Macon and, oh, you know, to now claim PTSD when he never saw action. You know, a defense, a trial, Alan, it's not a buffet. You can't have PTSD and low salt and football injury and delusion. No, you pretty much have to pick a defense, whether it's true or not, and stick with it.

You've got to go home with the one that brung you, in other words. You can't have all of this and just throw it all at the jury. Or, you know, maybe they will do that. It'll be a huge mistake. Some indication of this guy's character. He told his family that he actually was a Ranger. Ranger Special Forces in the army he claimed he served tours of duty in somalia haiti and was part of desert shield he also said he had a purple heart because he was wounded in combat but none of that according to his military records presented at the trial i mean he is lying for his teeth. He never saw combat. The only medal he ever got

was the expert marksmanship, which is about the, actually the only one of two medals I ever got. A psychologist, a forensic psychologist by the name of Robert Stanulis, says that his brain damage, that would be from the football in this perfect storm, affects his ability to make moral decisions and control his emotions that he was, quote, unable to appreciate that his conduct was wrong that night that he did all of these killings, and that his mental illness combined with the low sodium put him in a state of delirium. It wasn't eating so much that caused this low-sodium problem. The doctor testified it could have been caused by a combination of prescription drugs. He was taking anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants, and antipsychotic drugs. Okay, all right.

I think I have the picture. I don't think it's going to work with the jury, but I'm stunned that any upstanding doctor would even suggest this. You know, Alan, I could go with PTSD, okay? I could go with, it would take a lot, but I could go with an actual brain injury. But if this had never manifested before, and he suddenly goes crazy on his ex-wife and his girlfriend and whoever's standing around and then suddenly snaps back to normal, I don't buy any of that. Okay, our eyes are on the courtroom as this guy actually tries to tell a jury

he committed quadruple homicide because of low sodium and an old football injury. And the PTSD he suffered in the chow line in the military. Okay. And Nancy, let's thank our sponsor, SimpliSafe. If you're not there when a fire starts, who will be there to save your home? With SimpliSafe Home Security, your smoke detectors will immediately alert emergency services at the first sign of a fire. Get 10% off your system today at SimpliSafe.com slash Nancy. That's SimpliSafe.com slash Nancy.

Nancy Grace, Prime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friends. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.