Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - INJUSTICE WITH NANCY GRACE: Close Friend of Nancy Grace Suspected in Wife’s Murder

Episode Date: July 2, 2019

An important new series, “Injustice with Nancy Grace,” debuts on the Oxygen Network Saturday July 13th at 6pm EST. Each episode exposes an untold and riveting case involving wrongful accusations, botched investigations, suppressed evidence, unclear motives, unjust sentences and the path forward in seeking justice. Nancy doesn’t just cover crimes, she solves them.  Her first case is the mystery of Pamela Vitale, beaten to death in her home. The killer carves a strange symbol into her body. Her husband and Nancy’s good friend, defense attorney Daniel Horowitz, becomes the prime suspect Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. I've been a journalist over 20 years. I've handled and covered literally thousands of cases. Of all of those cases, the injustice of some just stick with me. Wrongful accusations. I don't care what the f*** they said. Sentences that don't fit the crime. Victims' cries for help ignored. Many cases may have been resolved in courts, but not resolved in my mind. I walked up to the house. I saw bloody hand marks on the front door. I just get sick. It's pure evil. Oxygen now bringing you Injustice with Nancy Grace.

Premiere July 13, 6 p.m. Eastern. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. When I hear cries of victims, when I hear about bloody handprints on a scene, when I hear the pain in victims' voices and police describing a crime scene. I want justice. I want justice. And that is why the premiere of Injustice with Nancy Grace that launches on Oxygen July 13 is so important to me. Guys, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to

thank you for being with us on this topic that is so dear to my heart. I can't count, I literally cannot count the number of cases I handled as a felony prosecutor in inner city Atlanta following the murder of my fiance, Keith, shortly before our wedding. That moment, that singular moment when I learned of his murder changed the course of my life and others' lives as well. Keith lost his life in one brutal, senseless act. It unfolded in such a way I could never have imagined growing up on a red dirt road that I would end up in law school, much less on TV for Pete's sake. But what I went through following his murder and living through his trial, I remember distinctly being called as a witness and hearing the sound of my boots going across a marble floor in a big old courtroom,

and then up two sets of stairs to the witness seat. And then after testifying to a jury, coming back down and passing the state's table, and on it, for the first time, I saw Keith's bloody denim shirt that he had been wearing that morning when he left to go to work. And I remember stopping and looking at it. I turned and kept walking toward the door,

and I passed the defense table and I looked at the defendant he looked at me very briefly looked straight down at his lap then I looked at his two defense lawyers on either side of him and they immediately looked down at the table nobody could look at me in the face.

And I remember turning and continuing to walk out of the courtroom and everything was quiet and I could hear again the sound of my boots with each step hitting that marble floor until wide double doors opened and they whooshed shut behind me. That was my first exposure to a court of law. I'd never seen one, been in one, knew anything about them. That is what I remember. All the years of prosecuting,

studying, researching, investigating, have now culminated in this Oxygen series, Injustice, with Nancy Grace. And I am so proud to you listening. You have been with me from the get-go since I first appeared on Court TV air with Johnny Cochran, God rest his soul, through the birth of the twins, to Sirius, to Crime Online, and now amazingly my new TV home, Oxygen and Injustice with Nancy Grace. Joining me right now, two people that I care about very, very much,

here in the studio with me, my partner in crime, Jackie Howard. Joining me from our Manhattan studios, Jason Kopp. Guys, it's amazing to me what we're doing with the Oxygen series, Jackie. It is absolutely amazing, Nancy, and I also find that it's kind of prophetic. From everything that you have been through from the beginning of your career, how you landed here to now, surely that has had to impact the cases that you picked because there are some injustices we're seeing here. Well, you know, that's funny that you say that because I look back on cases that I actually tried. So many of them, I mean, well over a hundred, and I can't even count the number of juvenile cases I tried. And there's no record of them because they're kept sealed.

There had to be 70, 80, 100 of those as well. And I rethink them, and I reanalyze them, and including investigations that I did, and cases that I covered that required my own investigation to cover them. The cases we have singled out for the auction series all stand for something, and each one involves an incredible injustice. Listen. Hello, 911? Hello, what's going on there?

What? What's going on there? What's going on there? What's going on there? Oh, God, travel up, please. Travel up. Travel up. Travel up, please. Oh, my God, please. Okay, Jason, I can't tell you how hearing that call, and I haven't heard it for so long, it's actually bringing tears to my eyes. My chest is actually hurting hearing that because I know that voice that's screaming in the background is my own friend, Dan, who comes home to find his wife murdered.

That's what he tells police. Hold on. Take a listen to this. The more they try to eliminate him, the harder of a time they were having eliminating him. They couldn't account for his time, you know, cell phone tracking and triangulation, his relationship with Pamela, their past, their money, their finances, potential affairs, court dealings, it all came back to a domestic homicide. He's the last one to see her. He's the one that finds the body. He's covered in blood. In the home that they shared, his DNA is everywhere. His bloody fingerprints are everywhere and his blue jeans

missing Jason Kopp you've been watching as we investigate the cases weigh in so Nancy Oxygen played the injustice trailer to rave reviews at CrimeCon this year and I believe that's because a lot of people are interested in true crime because they really want to help. As to what you were just saying, how can injustice help victims of current crimes and help victims of future crimes as far as getting people interested publicly and having people sort of think about these stories the way that you do? I believe justice with Nancy Grace speaks to victims now because it shows them it's never over. It's never over until justice has been served. Someone cares. Someone will still investigate.

Someone will still look at your case, no matter how much time has passed, no matter what has happened. Somebody cares and somebody is willing to fight the fight and stay strong till the end until justice is served. These stories are just unbelievable. People are going to be on the edge of their seats with these true crime stories. Why did you decide on these particular cases for injustice, separate from all the other amazing stories that you've done in your past? You just brought a memory to me, Jason Kopp, because I would be walking down and there were really wide halls at the courthouse because, you know, you'd bring jurors about to be in panel. That'd be about 100

per case to start with anyway. I mean, you got to have huge wide halls at courthouses if you can. I'd be coming down a hall first thing in the morning, let's just say quarter of eight, heading to court with all my files with me. And the halls would be flooded with defendants, defense attorneys, investigators, court clerks, probation officers, families, the works. And I would run into a defense attorney and I would typically have the same greeting. Good morning. Never like a business for you. In other words, there's always another case. There's always going to be another crime. And there's always going to be a defense attorney to try to get somebody off the hook. What I'm saying is, it's like drinking from a fire hydrant, Jason. There's thousands of cases that need a spotlight.

Thousands, Jason. It's more than I can even say. We worked and we worked and we worked to pick out cases that not only warrant investigation, but need a spotlight shined on them because of their particular nature, what they stand for. That is how we picked the cases. And I got to tell you something, Jason, this case of Pam's murder, brutal murder, the perp actually carved figures into her body. Okay. And this is a friend of mine. I just seen Pam a couple of nights before she was murdered. And it was a lot for me to take in that she had been murdered. And in such a horrible, brutal fashion that another friend, her husband, screaming on 911, he finds her dead body.

I will never forget him calling me from the back of a patrol car, Jason. And you know what that means. He's not being treated as a victim or a witness. They have him in the back of a cop car. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Handmarks on the front door. I just get sick. It's pure evil. There's splatter blood all over the bridge. I'm trying to piece this together, why is this beautiful young girl been beaten so severely and dumped in a river? We know who did it. They couldn't find him. If this was your husband, he would have simply vanished.

I'm not comfortable talking about this right now. Is that something that's fair? Is that just? Is that sufficient? They say the evidence wasn't provided to the defense. It actually was. Everything seems settled. And then... Bombshell!

We have a warrant for arrest. For murder. I should not have to tell people that there are some killers who are not redeemable. When justice goes wrong. I just kept telling myself that this can't be happening. The system fails. If I had known, then I would have been able to protect her. The injustice of these cases changes everybody's life and nothing is ever the same. Injustice with Nancy Grace, a new series, Saturday, July 13th at

six on Oxygen. You know, just hearing the mix of the cases, we are bringing you on Injustice with Nancy Grace. I feel like a rocket's about to launch and everybody's doing a countdown and hearing the cases and what they stand for and why they were chosen to spotlight the injustice regarding those cases. Right now, I'm talking about a dear friend of mine, Pam, found dead in her home, bludgeoned, beaten. One of the bloodiest crime scenes I've ever seen. The killer etching, carving into her skin. And then my other friend, her husband, charged with murder. That was a real moral test

for me because everything pointed to Daniel. Listen. Officers that responded to that location said the house was a mess. There was blood spatter that was near the door. Pamela was on the ground, lifeless. She had some defensive wounds on her hands. Clearly she was in a fight for her life. There was a serious struggle. There was a major fight that happened in the house. There was blood everywhere, but they found no weapon. What happened to the weapon? And keep this in mind, Pam and Dan were building their dream house. They'd been living in what looked to me like a mobile home, but it was kind of like a prefab home for a long time. And they were building this thing that looked like an Italian villa on the side of a mountain. And they were using all their money to make it real.

They weren't bringing in bricks from Home Depot or Lowe's. They were bringing in stuff from Italy. It was costing a fortune. I imagine a huge financial burden on them because they were halfway through it. They're like, should we keep going? Should we finish? They had no choice but to finish. And they lived up on a rugged mountain in California and it was very hard to get up there. It'd take me forever to get up to their place. Who in the hay would climb up the side of a mountain to commit a murder? Nothing. Stolen. No sex attack. Who? I was tested because when Daniel called me from the back of a police car, we talked and we talked and we talked then and more.

When I was speaking to Daniel one-on-one, and I'm asking him questions that the investigators had not asked. I learned, and I believe I was the only one to know at that moment, when I said, well, Daniel, was anything taken from the home? He goes, no, nothing. Except, you know what? They took a pair of my blue jeans. And the moment he said that, my world changed. Because whoever murdered Pam had to be covered in blood. Covered. Dan, very short for a guy. Very thin. I certainly couldn't squeeze into a pair of his jeans.

And it dawned on me. Why would anybody want to get rid of their blue jeans, their favorite jeans they wore practically every day? Only the killer. Because they were likely covered in blood. That's where my mind went. And I looked at him, and I remember Jackie, the chill going down my body, when he goes, looked at me straight in the face and says, no, nothing was stolen except, you know, my favorite blue jeans.

I wore them every day. That would be something that would really jump out at me if I was looking at this case. But you have such a unique way of looking at things. So in looking at this case. Wait a minute. You're totally ignoring my moral dilemma because here's one of my best friends telling me that the, quote, a killer takes his favorite blue jeans from the crime scene. No money, no jewelry, no electronics, just his blue jeans. He wore every day. Why? And I mean, seriously, nobody in this studio right now could fit into those blue jeans, let me tell you.

It's like, you know, Prince would wear like a woman's size five clothing. Like I could get one leg into that. No, same thing with Daniel. He is, you know, a mighty voice in the courtroom, but when you see him, he's small physically. I mean, seriously, my daughter could probably wear his blue jeans. What killer, and it had to be a man, of course, to overpower and so bloody and so violent, etching into her skin. A man did it, and they wanted Daniel's blue jeans, bloody blue jeans. And when I heard that, Jackie, I was like all twisted up inside, because no way, even though I know that pointed to Dan as the killer, even though I knew cops are piling on and they were going to arrest him. I knew this detail and I knew he had not told the cops that.

And I was really torn. Do I tell the cops or do I keep it a secret? Because I believe Dan's innocent. I actually wasn't ignoring what you're saying. You just built into my point. Is it brought in the Nancy Grace method of looking at facts and figuring things out? Wasn't a moral dilemma for you because you knew your friend. So how did you put your idea in there?

It's just, it's making my stomach hurt even remembering, trying to figure out, do I take this to police? Do I call them right now or not? And I was really torn up about it. I told nobody at all late that night. I mean, I was in California. I don't even remember what case I was covering. And I remember taking my husband, then we weren't married, off away where nobody could hear. And I said, I need you to listen to this. I got to figure out what I'm going to do. And I told him and I broke down in tears because I did not want to tell police what I knew. When you're talking about a method, Jackie, when I walk into a room, a crime scene, I feel almost inhuman, because everywhere I look, I see evidence.

Every part of the wall, the floor, the door, the light switch, the rug, the chair, everything, the trash can, everything screams evidence at me and I can't help that. Every car that goes by, I look at their tag and memorize it. Everything that's just built in. It's like years of training, years of investigation. It becomes a way of life. And at the very heart of that is seeking justice, seeking a verdict that speaks the truth. No matter what. No matter how. Whether the courthouse falls down around me as I'm looking for the truth. And no matter who stands in the way. I guess that's my method.

Guys, please join us. July 13. 6 p.m. Eastern. Injustice. With Nancy Grace, only on Oxygen, the true network for crime. Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.