Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - MANHUNT: DAD LOSES CUSTODY, GUNS DOWN JUDGE IN DRIVEWAY

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Hours after a judge awards sole custody of four children to their mother and the father is forced to leave the home, the judge is gunned down in a targeted attack. Judge Andrew Wilkinson suffered multiple gun shot wounds in his own driveway.  Police have named Pedro Argote as the suspect, who abandoned his car around ten miles from Wilkerson's home. Argote has now eluded police for six days, and investigators say they believe Argote has left the immediate area.   Joining Nancy Grace Today: Jessica Garth - Chief, Special Victims & Family Violence Unit, State's Attorney's Office, Prince George's County, Maryland  Caryn L. Stark - Psychologist, renowned TV and Radio trauma expert and consultant, www.carynstark.com, Instagram: carynpsych, FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice  Irv Brandt - Senior Inspector, US Marshals Service International Investigations Branch, Chief Inspector, DOJ Office of International Affairs; Author: “SOLO SHOT: CURSE OF THE BLUE STONE” available on Amazon, Also "FLYING SOLO: Top of the World" Twitter: @JackSoloAuthor  Shannon Henry- President & Founder of SASS Go, (Surviving Assault Standing Strong) a nonprofit on a mission to eradicate abuse, trafficking and violence against women and girls globally, Case Consultant,  Adjunct Professor at the University of South Carolina in the Department of Education, www.sassgo.org, @sassgoglobal FB, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok Mike Hadsell-  President and Founder of Peace River K9 Search and Rescue, PRSAR.org Dr. Kendall Crowns- Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County, Lecturer: University of Texas Austin and Texas Christian University Medical School Christopher Gavin-(Rhode Island) Breaking news reporter for The Messenger, www.TheMessenger.com. TWITTER: @chris_m_gavin See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Custody battles are never pretty. They're always awful. In all the years I prosecuted felony crimes in inner city Atlanta, and that was 10 years. Murders, rape, child molestation, you name it. I hated going into the courtroom when there was a custody battle going on. The anger, the animosity, the bitterness, the resentment, all that raw emotion just beneath the surface and not always beneath the surface. Oh yeah, slugfest would break out in the courtroom. Ex-husbands and wives being literally pulled apart by the sheriff's bailiffs. Now we know a judge has been gunned down dead in the driveway after making a custody ruling.

And now that shooter is on the run, armed, desperate and dangerous. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories and Sirius XM 111. First of all, take a listen to this. At approximately 8 p.m., deputies from the Washington County Sheriff's Office and other agencies responded to the 19,100 block of Old Waterford Road in Hagerstown, Maryland, for a reported shooting. The victim was an adult male who was located in the driveway of the residence. The victim was suffering from what appeared to be gunshot wounds. He was transported to Meredith Medical Center where he later succumbed to his injuries. The victim was identified as Washington County, Maryland Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson, 52 of Hagerstown.

You were hearing Carly Hose, the public information officer for Washington County Sheriff's Office. And now take a listen to the elected sheriff himself. Around 8 p.m., Washington County Sheriff's deputies were called to Old Waterford Drive, north of Hagerstown, after a shooting report. Judge Wilkinson was found in the driveway of the home he shares with his wife and son, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He later died at a local hospital. Police did not immediately release a motive for the shooting.

This was a targeted attack on Judge Wilkinson. We have identified Pedro Argote of Frederick, Maryland as a suspect in this case. Argote is not in custody and is considered armed and dangerous. If anyone has information on Argote's location, we ask that they immediately contact local law enforcement. The suspect is known to drive a 2009 silver Mercedes SUV GL450 model displaying Maryland registration. If you will gun down a Superior Court judge right there in his driveway with his wife and child inside, what else will you do? This guy on the run joining me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now.

But first, straight out to special guest joining us, Chris Gavin, breaking news investigative reporter with The Messenger. Chris, thank you for being with us. Let's just start at the beginning when police were called to the driveway. What happened? Basically, deputies were called to this suburban block in Maryland about 75 miles northwest of Baltimore a quiet street from what it looks like they get there and they find the judge out in the driveway suffering from a couple of gunshot wounds we know that his wife and son were home at the time and that clip

you just played he was brought to a hospital where he succumbed to the injuries. Next day, police say they're looking for Pedro Argote. And as we quickly came to learn, he had just had a case appear in the judge's courtroom earlier in the morning on Thursday where the judge had decided to give his wife custody of their four children. Guys, we were talking about the death of a judge in his prime. He had been on the bench since I believe 2020, was doing a wonderful job.

This judge fatally gunned down at his home in Hagerstown, Maryland. After not even a controversial court ruling, joining me right now is Jessica Garth, Chief of the Special Victims Family Violence Unit, Georgia. She's out of Prince George's County, Maryland. This is your jurisdiction. Jessica, I know dads all over the country are going to hate me for saying this, but they already know that it's true. Typically, custody does go to the mom. Why?

Maybe moms are viewed as more nurturing. Maybe the children want to be with the mom. Maybe the mom is breastfeeding. I don't know the history. I'm a criminal prosecutor. I evaluate the history. I'm a criminal prosecutor. I evaluate the facts. What I'm trying to say is when a dad goes in the courtroom, be it wrong or right, and I'm not arguing that it's right or wrong right now.

I'm saying that dads expect that they may lose full custody. And I'm going to get to why he lost full custody in just a moment. But that's a given, Jessica. I agree, Nancy. I mean, I do think times are changing as we see the value in having both parents involved in their children's lives. But certainly for a very long time, the default has been that mothers would get primary custody, if not full custody in a situation like this. And I'm not saying it's right. And I'm not saying it's wrong.

It's an individual case. How young are the children? Do they still need the mom for various reasons? That said, when a dad goes into court, get ready because you might lose custody. Otherwise, try to work on your marriage and stay with the children for Pete's sake. Back to you, Chris Gavin. Isn't it true that they had had marital issues in the past? Yes. No. From what we can tell, yes. It's been reported that they had filed for divorce over a year ago, June last year. And around that same time, ourote's wife had filed for a restraining order against him citing an abusive relationship. Okay, I'm going to get into their relationship. Was it abusive? Was it not abusive? Is that why he wasn't getting custody?

He didn't even show up for that hearing that morning, by the way. Let's hear some more of what we know right now. This guy on the run, and listen to me. If he will gun down a judge in the driveway, what will he do to you? If you apprehend him, if he wants your car, if he wants your money to stay on the run, listen to me. Take a listen now to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. We have responded to the residents for verbal domestic assaults two times within the last few years. But no criminal record that we're aware of.

Do you know if his gun was legally purchased? Yes, he was legally owned a handgun. Police identify 49-year-old Pedro Argote as the shooting suspect. Police say Argote is 5'7", 140 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Argote's abandoned vehicle was found in a wooded area less than 10 miles away. Washington County Sheriff Brian Albert says Argote is considered armed and dangerous. Albert says the attack happened just hours after the judge awarded custody of Argote's four children to his ex-wife. Court documents show Wilkinson also denied Argote's visitation rights and ordered him to pay child support. Argote is currently on the run. Police say he has ties to multiple states outside Maryland,

including New York, Florida, Indiana, and North Carolina. To Chris Gavin joining us, investigative reporter with The Messenger. Chris, I want to talk about the number of times he was shot. Do we know how many times the judge was shot? I know at least twice, but I'm hearing multiple. We've heard that word multiple a few times, but that's about all we know. It's been unspecified so far. According to Judge Brett R. Anderson, it was a courthouse of six judges and all the judges were very, very close.

I want to tell you what that's like. In the district attorney's office, when I was a prosecutor, we had, oh gosh, 60 to 70 prosecutors. But you would be in little clusters like the appellate lawyers. When I was an appeals lawyer, was a group of 10 in the brain trust. And we were very, very close. Then when I became a trial lawyer, you would form relationships with the people in that courtroom where you were prosecuting, the clerk, the court reporter, the lead attorney in the courtroom, the backups, or as they call them then, the ponies that heap all the work on. And you become extremely close because to you, Karen Stark, joining me, a renowned psychologist. You see her on TV, on radio, k KarenStark.com, Karen with a C.

Karen, I think part of it is that you go through, it's like being in a foxhole with somebody. You are really on the front line every day at work. It's not like you can sit at your desk and your mind wanders and you get to play Candy Crush. You are in there dealing with murderers and rapists, sex molesters, arsonists, dope lords, their mules. You are on 24-7. You can't even take the elevator because there could be jurors or witnesses in there. Bottom line, you form a bond like you would in combat. Exactly, Nancy. I mean, you can't think of a situation just like you said. You're on the front line. And so people become very, very close when you're in any kind of situation where you're experiencing that much together, whether it's just like you said, people who are murderers.

It just it makes you feel so close to the people that you're connected with. Well, you are close and I will never forget, Karen. I've told you the story that my investigator was with me in this. He covered me many times. We went to a location to find a witness. It was really bright and hot outside. And the witness had a, it was dark on the inside of their apartment and they had one of those rusty screen doors. So we couldn't see inside. The first thing we saw was a wrong end of a barrel coming straight into our faces. And my investigator jumped in front of me, took me with him, and we jumped off the side

of the porch down about four feet. We weren't hurt at all. But what I'm saying is you are at a point where you would take a bullet for that person, just like Ernest did that day. Luckily, he didn't have to take a bullet, but he was willing. And these judges who work with this guy every day, Judge Andrew Wilkinson, are with him every day on the front lines. Not only that, his wife, Stephanie, he has a son and a daughter. Now daddy's dead in the driveway. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Joining me, and you know him well, and everybody on the panel, let me remind you, this ain't high tea at Windsor Castle with King Charles and Camilla. So jump in if you have a thought. Don't hold back. And that includes you, Irv Brandt. All right. You have tracked down people all around the world. I need to hear from you. Dr. Kendall Crown's joining me. Chief medical examiner, Tarrant County.

That's Fort Worth. Never a lack of business. Lecturer, University of Texas, Austin and Texas Christian University Medical School. Dr. Crowns, we're hearing multiple gunshot wounds. To me, that means over two. Typically, and I don't know why it's described as two but if you start getting over two and you really don't know how many we hear multiple so I'm asking you dr. Kendall crowns you've done literally thousands of autopsies in fact I'm very surprised you're not in the middle one right now that said what did the judge go through when he died? Right there in the driveway.

I mean, did he even have time to think, oh, my stars, I'm never going to see my children again. Or, oh, my stars, my wife's going to get shot. Or, am I dying? Do you have time to think those thoughts when you're shot multiple times? Yes. I mean, depending on where you get hit, of course, if you get hit in the brain, you're not going to be thinking about too much. But if you get hit in the chest or even the heart,

you still have minutes while your body is bleeding out to have those thoughts of, you know, you're dying and what's going on. And often while you're bleeding out, you're slowly losing consciousness. Your body's becoming colder because you're shutting down. So, you know, you have several minutes of time for self-reflection, I guess. Self-reflection? Time for self-reflection? What do you mean by that, Dr. Kendall Crown? Self-reflection? Well, you know, if you think you're dying, maybe you are thinking about all the things

that you wish you could have accomplished or should have done. All those things. Who knows what goes through your mind while you're dying? It's difficult to say. Self-reflection. I don't know if I'd be having self-reflection. I think I'd be worried about my children and my husband and would I ever see them again? I think that's much more of what you would have had,

Nancy, worrying about what would happen with your family. Yeah. Like, is this guy going to go in there? I mean, I wonder if he even saw who was shooting him. Chris Gavin with me. The messenger had the judge just got out of his car. Was he walking to the front porch? What happened? That hasn't actually been disclosed yet by authorities. Basically, what we know since the case is still under investigation is just that they got this call around 8 p.m. on Thursday night and that they found the judge there in his driveway with his wife and his son at home. I know he made it to the hospital. I mean, we've been reports that he died in the hospital. Guys, now, take a listen to this. There was a proceeding earlier in the day, a divorce hearing,

that our goatee was not in attendance of that, though, at the court. That was earlier in the day. I'm not sure of the time. Not sure of the time, and we know he didn't show up. Let's hear more. This morning at approximately 11 a.m., the suspect's vehicle was located in a wooded area off of Bottom Road. That's in Williamsport, Maryland, on the Tannery property, if you're familiar with Williamsport. A search has started and is ongoing. If you see this guy, do not approach him. In fact, get away from him. Don't make it obvious. Just get away as quickly as you can. He has ties in multiple states,

including New York, New Jersey, and Florida. That's probably where he's going. He does have the wherewithal, the smarts to leave this country. I want to look at, uh, before we get to his vehicle being found, Chris Gavin, I want to talk about the proceeding earlier in the day, a divorce hearing that he did not attend. He was a no show. What happened at that divorce hearing, Chris Gavin, because I understand that he had been banned from the family home and that he was asked to pay $1,200, I think, a month. What happened leading up to that hearing? Well, that's correct. That's what was ordered. Basically, this case had been before Judge Wilkinson's record show for the past year, really since it was filed in June of 2022.

And like I said earlier, there was a restraining order. It was lifted the circumstances around the straining order a little unclear at the time, but, um, You know, kind of before this decision was made, we had heard from, uh, his wife that he was abusive towards at least one of their children, um, and had been, uh been emotionally abusive towards her in the past. Police said they'd been called to the family home for basically arguments, verbal, alleged verbal abuse in the past over the last few years. So there's clearly some fraught allegations in this relationship prior to the judge deciding on Thursday that custody

should not go toward them. In fact, he was told to stay away from his children. But he was also, to your point, had to make a monthly payment, child support payment, and was supposed to allow his wife to use a Mercedes that they had to bring the kids to any needed appointments, etc. Now, this is the time you are supposed to start turning your life around if you want to see your children. But instead of doing that, he shoots the judge and takes off in the Mercedes. I want to talk about what led up to this. Take a listen to Hour

Cut 1, our friend Dave Mack. Pedro and Eugenia Argote were married with four children, but they had a relationship filled with alleged abuse, mostly verbal, emotional, and controlling. According to NBC News, Eugenia called a partner violence center in 2012, but later wrote she never got enough help to leave. The Maryland Daily Record reports when Eugenia Argote petitioned the court for a protective order, she wrote that her husband was extremely controlling, kept her car keys at all times, so he knew when she was leaving home and stole money from her. On top of this, months prior to filing for divorce, Pedro Argote bragged in a 2021 Facebook post about taking shooting lessons. In a review posted on the United Gun Shop Facebook page, Pedro Argote bragged in a 2021 Facebook post about taking shooting lessons.

In a review posted on the United Gun Shop Facebook page, Pedro Argote wrote, quote, you'll leave feeling confident, unquote. A little more than two years after that. That's not good. That's not good at all. We believe this guy is armed. Chris Gavin, why do we believe he's armed? Because obviously he shot the judge.

But any other reason? I mean, right now we know that the car was found. We haven't heard any word from authorities that they had found any weapon that they believe was used in this attack. Clearly he had gone through gun training or had taken a course at least in the past. And if I remember correctly, I do think that he had a license for that weapon. We also had heard from his wife who had written to the judge around the time of the divorce filing that her husband had carried a weapon, quote, at all times. Why? What did he do for a living, Chris Gavin? Honestly, I'm sorry. I actually don't know. I can't find it either. Jackie, see if you can dig it up for me because I haven't found it. Why does he think he needs a gun

on his body? Jump in. Nancy, I think they said they ran a food truck. I think that was one of the things he had was a food truck that they ran, like a meal type truck. Hey, there's so many facts, fast and furious. I get it. Nancy, jump in, please. Yeah, I think, you know, when we're asking the question, why would he be carrying a gun all the time? It's very clear that he has been abusing his wife for a long time. She went to that advocacy center in 2012. And as the relationship continues slowly over time, they have to increase their power and control with intensity and frequency. And so a gun constantly on your hip is a great threatening tool to have to yield over the person that you're trying to intimidate. Guys, with me, Shannon Henry, president and founder of SASS Ghost, Surviving Assault, Standing Strong.

It is a nonprofit to eradicate abuse, trafficking, and violence on women. You can find her at sassgo.org. Shannon, I was just about to ask you, when I worked at the Battered Women's Center as a volunteer for nine years at night, very often I would hear women state that the husband would literally take the phone cord when he left to go to work and the car keys and would have all of the credit cards, the debit cards, the everything. And when I hear this woman alleging that he would take the car keys, I remember all of those women with similar stories. It's just another form of abuse.

Absolutely. And it's one where they can maintain power and control. So whether it's finances or isolating them or the intimidation and the threats and the abuse, all of it is used to keep and maintain that control. I think where we see that Mrs. Argote finally had her last button pushed was when he threatened her 11-year-old. Now, we know that the food truck was shut down during COVID. And what he may be doing is a digital advertising company he reportedly was running with his wife. Now, what can you tell me?

You mentioned the abuse on the 11-year-old. What do we know about that? If you could describe what, if anything, we know about that. From what I read, there was an incident where she placed her body between him and the 11-year-old. She said that he was often frustrated and enraged by the 11 year old. And we're not sure why, but she placed her body between her, you know, him and the 11 year old to neutralize the threat. And so it was shortly thereafter that she, she went in and did what she did to try to get the judicial system to help her protect her and her family.

And thank goodness she had Judge Wilkinson, who clearly saw that this level of control equals lethality. So he took away his guns, his wife, his kids, his house, and did his best to remove the threat. And unfortunately, Argote then turned his attention to Wilkinson and confirmed for all of us just how accurate this judge was in his assessment. You are hearing Shannon Henry, the president and founder of SASSGO, Surviving Assault, Standing Strong. You know, I have disagreed. I bet you have too, Irv Brandt. Joining me, Senior Inspector, U.S. Marshal Service, International Investigations Branch, Chief Inspector, DOJ, Office of International Affairs, author of Solo Shot, Curse of the Blue Stone, and Flying Solo, Top of the World, which. I don't even know how many. I cannot count them that I've argued in front of, tried cases in front of, had motions in front of.

And I've, in the midst of trial, thought, oh, I hate this judge. They're a jackass. They're an idiot. All that may have been true, but I sure as heck don't want them gunned down like a dog in the driveway with the wife and the child inside. You don't want the judge dead. They're more than a judge. They're more than a man.

They're more than a woman. They represent our system of justice. Now, I'm sure the judge's wife and children don't give a fig about that this morning. But it's more than just a murder. It's an attack on our system. Right? Nancy, that's exactly right. And that's why the United States Marshal Service is involved in the case. The United States Marshal Service protects the federal judiciary, does all the threat investigations, does all the protective details.

So they're asked to assist in state cases all the time. And what you were talking about earlier, about him missing the court date. He was out buying ammo. Right. Well, it's obvious he has a plan. This was premeditated, cold blooded murder and assassination, if you will, on a member of the judiciary, which is an attack on society itself. It's an attack on all of us, Irv, because, I mean, if you're going to gun down a judge, what else will you do? And I know he hated the ruling. I get it. He's been used to bullying his wife and children, which is another thing Karen's talking about. Why do we often see one child picked out to be mistreated? But that said, he was used to getting his way and bullying, and this judge wouldn't let him have his way.

Well, Nancy, every case is different. Every fugitive investigation is different, as you know. But you've got to look at the facts surrounding this case. He had a plan. He went to that judge's house. This wasn't an after rage in the courtroom after a ruling. He didn't attack him on the bench. He went to his house and he assassinated him. He ditched his car. He had a plan. He was going to commit the murder. Then he was going to disappear. He was going to go on the run. So this isn't like a prison break where you have an inmate running around in a prison uniform, playing it by ear, making it up as he goes along.

He's blending. Right. He has a plan. So the United States Marshals Service specializes in fugitive investigations like this. No one has a larger fugitive investigative network than the Marshals Service. They will track him to every state in the United States, every country in the world, and to the gates of hell if necessary. He's not going to get away with this. You know, I'm looking at this guy with me, Mike Hadsall, president and founder of Peace River Canine Search and Rescue. He looks very much like Scott Peterson. Some people think that he's handsome. Not me. I think he's a killer, a judge killer. And I think he bullied his wife and their three children. And what you

heard Shannon Henry say earlier it was a little 11 year old girl that hit the mom had to get between him and the little girl to stop him from hitting or grabbing or physically assaulting the little girl I can tell everybody right now spankings do not work I learned learned that when Lucy, when Lucy Lynch was two years old, I spotted her on the behind for hitting John David in the head with a block. She just looked at me like, is that all you got? Really? So then I went to timeout, which didn't work a whole lot better, but a little bit better. So I'm looking at him and the wife and the three children and thinking about her getting between him and the three children and thinking about her getting between

him and the three children and Shannon Henry, I'm going to circle back to you and Jessica. After the mom filed that one charge against him, that one petition, she dropped it. She was talked out of dropping it, which is curious. But Mike Hadsall, agree or disagree with Brandt, Irv Brandt? Where is this guy? Where is he headed? Think. Well, if I had to put money on him, being that he is kind of good looking, he's got that Antonio Banderas thing going on. According to you, he's good looking.

He looks like the devil to me. He looks like pure hell to me. Go ahead. Thugs live by, you know, they have to up the threat all the time. That's the only way they keep the thuggery going on. And unfortunately, he ran out, made his decision. He had help. Obviously, I'm looking at where the car was ditched. It's out in the middle of nowhere. They didn't find him. They probably searched it looking to see if he committed suicide out there or something. He did not commit suicide that we

know of. Exactly. So that means that somebody had to pick him up and bring him out of there because he sure as hell didn't walk out of there. So who's helping him is my next question. And then my best guess on where he would run being he has a lot of family in the Tampa Bay area in Florida. So my guess is he's probably on his way to Florida. Well, Nancy, I want to I want to go back for a second to what you said about why she might have dropped that charge, you know, because it ties into exactly to what he's saying. You know, it's been proven that she, you know, in 2012 reached out to an advocacy center and didn't feel like she had the safety

planning she needed to get out of there, you know, in a safe manner. So there's a million reasons why women drop these cases all the time. But the main one is they're not sure that they can stay safe. So the best option for staying safe, which sounds absurd from the outside, but it's to stay in the environment where you know that you are not going to be killed. Unfortunately, what we've discovered here is that, and I go back to Mr. Brandt, just how calculating this man is. He didn't snap. He chose to wait in an area of mandatory travel for this man, for this judge, which was his home. Anytime you're in an area where you have to be, you know that's an area of mandatory travel, and that's where most people are killed. So he was waiting for him.

And while he was there, he chose to kill him at a place where security is not as tight as a courthouse, right? It's his home. It's the place he can relax and go to his mailbox or do whatever he needs to do. And we know that 20% of people killed in domestic violence-related homicides are friends, family, first responders, and yes, judges. And so now we can see, you know, we wonder why she dropped it. She knew how lethal he was and how calculating, and it all played out in this driveway. Agree or disagree, Jessica Garth? Strongly agree. I think that I also read in one of the articles

that she agreed to drop the protective order because there had been some sort of an agreement reached between them that they would be living separately. I think I also read that at some point they were just living in separate areas of the home. But, you know, an agreement like that, you have to wonder whether she actually had any power to make an agreement like that and to actually be safe. Because we're talking about a woman who was being financially abused, who did not have her own source of income.

She stated that her biggest fear was that he some way to drop what would have been an official, you know, protective order in order to come to this agreement, which ultimately did not really protect her or her children any further than they already were. I'm wondering what's happening to her and her children right now. Certainly, they're not still sitting in that house like sitting ducks. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Let me ask you this, Jessica Garth and Shannon Henry. Jessica, do you ever think about a defendant coming after you? Yes, I do. At the time I was a prosecuting, I really didn't think about it. Although my tires were slit, my car windows were broken multiple times. My door was kicked in.

My mailbox was knocked over. I had a lot of threats, got death threats, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I never really felt at the time anyway that anything was going to happen to me. I don't know why I had that frame of mind. I guess I was just, you know, thought I was invincible. Go ahead. I've had actually defendants approach me in the community when I've been out and about. And it is it's truly chilling.

It's a very, very uncomfortable situation. And you really do realize how unprotected you are as a civil servant when you're out in the community and somebody just walks up to you and says, hey, do you remember me? So, you know, I feel very much for the judge's family and for the judge himself. When people come up to me now, I never know were they a juror, were they a witness, Are they a defendant? And I will never forget coming down the courthouse steps. It was a really bad child molestation case. And the perp had actually, I think he said he had 25 natural children. Okay. So many of them were grown.

When I walked down the steps out of that courthouse, they were all there, angry. And what actually threatened me, and I think it was so soon after my fiance's murder, I turned around and said, do it, do it, right here, do it, shoot me. Because I was just so worn out and really didn't care. And then suddenly they all backed down. I went to my car. Next day, all my tires were slit. That said, they didn't shoot me. What about it, Shannon Henry?

I think, you know, we all have to be careful when we're putting ourselves in positions to protect others. Obviously, just like we see with Judge Wilkinson, Argote clearly switched his attention from his wife to Argote because he lost his power and control in his mind from Argote. So he decided to take it back. The car has been found. Take a listen. Our cut 22 PIO this morning at approximately 11 a.m. The suspect's vehicle was located in a wooded area off of Bottom Road. That's in Williamsport, Maryland, on the Tannery property, if you're familiar with Williamsport. A search has started and is ongoing. To you, Christopher Gavin, joining us from The Messenger.

Where is that in relation to where the judge was shot and where the defendant's home is? I mean, typically speaking, it's all relatively in the same area. I mean, not far. Not far at all. It's about seven miles from Hagerstown. Okay, Irv Brandt, this is where you and Mike Hadsall come in again. Irv Brandt, let's think this thing through. He's dumped his Mercedes.

Was he on foot? Did he have help? Did he catch an Uber? What do we do now to find out in which direction he's headed? Yes to everything that you just said. Could have had help. Could have took an Uber. Could have had another car staged. He had a plan that he implemented. He had an assassination plan and he had an escape plan. So there's many possibilities and the investigation is going to lead in many directions. There's going to be a lot of investigators from state, local and federal authorities, and they'll pursue every investigative lead. When you say every investigative lead,

I think you mean, I'm interpreting, you're going to look at rental cars. You're going to look at flights. Chris, Gavin, you can tell me the closest airport to there. You're going to look at toll booths. You're going to look at tag grabbers. If you can figure out what car he's in, you're going to look at business video traffic cams to see which direction. You're going to start rousting friends, relatives in other jurisdictions, such as Jersey, New York, and Florida, finding out if they've been in contact. You're going to ping his phone. We don't know anything about whether his phone was

still in that car. Is he smart enough to get a burner? Was the phone in the car, Chris Gavin? Do we know? That we don't know right now. That tells me it was not in the car. And this is how the car was found. Take a listen to Sheriff Brian K. Albert in 24. It was a local resident that found it. I think they own some property in the area there. It is muzzleloader season here in Maryland for deer. So the hunters were out today and that's, I don't know if that's why they were in the area, but you know, it's kind of a high recreation area. The C&O Canal runs south of there. So, you know, it's frequented by residents here in the community. Any indication how long the Mercedes has been there? Was it in here long?

We don't know that at this time. We do know that, you know, we found by local resident here about 11 o'clock this morning off Bottom Road. It's a pretty remote area, so it could have been there since Thursday night or sometime Friday. That didn't help anything. This guy's got a heck of a lead and more from the sheriff in our cut 26. This tells me a lot. I mean, definitely that's a possibility that he is not in the area, but we have to clear this area to make sure it's a pretty big area that we're looking at. And, you know, it's it's hundreds of acres in there that, you know, within a 10 minute walk, you could you can be in a lot of

places down there, especially with the canal. There's a railroad track that runs through and then some other local roads. So we're just clearing it just to, you know, we can say, hey, he's not here or we hopefully we can locate him. And he goes on to indicate that they don't believe he's still in the area. Chris Gavin, what does that mean? Is that actually correct? I mean, from the outside of the investigation, it's unclear. But obviously, I think when authorities say something like that, they typically have it on good word or have come across something in their investigation that would make them truly believe that. The last two days or so, we've seen the sheriff's office post on social media the page for tips to the U.S. Marshal Service. So, you know, I think they're really trying to get the public's help to look beyond their county jurisdiction at this point. According to the sheriff's office, they do not believe he is in the area where his Mercedes was found abandoned.

There is a $10,000 reward for anyone that can help find this guy. Final word to you, Irv Brandt, U.S. Marshal Service, says he's got ties to multiple locations, Brooklyn, Long Island, other places in New York, Tampa, Clearwater, Columbus, Indiana, North Carolina. Wow, that's a needle in a haystack. Or is it, Irv Brandt? It sounds daunting, Nancy, but in reality, it's not. Like I said before, the Marshal Service has an extensive fugitive network. They will pursue every lead. We have offices and task forces in every city, every county in this nation. There's going to be no lack of manpower in pursuing this investigation.

I can tell you that I'm confident that it's already been designated as a major case, and the longer he stays on the run, a case like this could eventually end up being a U.S. Martial Service motion warning case. And, you know, bottom line in cases like this, the judge was shot the very day the judge awarded the defendant's wife a partial judgment of absolute divorce, granting custody of their children to her. And now he has ensured that he will never have custody. He has shot a judge dead and he is on the run showing no love for his children at all. Tip line 877-926-8332. Repeat. U.S. Marshals 877-926-8332.

Man, you can run, but you can't hide. Goodbye, friends. This is an I Heart Podcast.