Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Perp Guns down Movie Goer in Theater After Popcorn Throw, WALKS FREE

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

Chad Oulson goes on a movie date with his wife. As the film begins, the 43-year-old texts the babysitter. A voice behind him, Curtis Reeves, tells him to stop. Reeves and Oulson get into an argument. and Oulson grabs a bag of popcorn from Reeves and throws it at the man. Reeves, a retired cop, pulls a handgun and fires. Oulson dies after being hit in the chest. Reeves is charged with second-degree murder and aggravated battery, but claims self-defense, telling a jury that he was "in fear of being attacked. " Now, a Florida jury has acquitted retired Florida police captain Curtis Reeves.Joining Nancy Grace Today: John W. Dill, Esquire - Personal Injury Lawyer, Winter Park, Florida, Author: "The Method: Proven Techniques for Winning Jury Trials", www.JohnWDill.com, Twitter/IG @JohnWDillESQ, Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, www.carynstark.com, Twitter: @carynpsych, Facebook: "Caryn Stark"  Greg Smith - Special Deputy Sheriff, Johnson County Sheriff's Office (Kansas), Executive Director of the Kelsey Smith Foundation, www.kelseysarmy.com Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Lecturer: University of Texas and Texas A&M, Affiliated Faculty: University of Texas Medical Branch Kristy Mazurek - Emmy Award-winning Investigative Reporter, President: "Successful Strategies" 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. It's a big treat when we all go out to the movie. I get the twins. I get David. We load up on drinks and candy and popcorn, the works, and we sit down and we completely love every minute of it. But that is not what happened in a Pasco County, Florida theater when shots ring out. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. When all the smoke cleared and the lights were turned on, there was a dead body in the cinema. Take a listen to our friends at WFTS. It was supposed to be a nice afternoon at the movies. Vivian Reeves and her husband, Curtis, there to see a matinee of Lone Survivor. Their adult son was on his way to meet them. But then when the yelling started, Vivian says she's never been so scared in all her life. Vivian Reeves testified today that inside Theater 10, she

noticed Chad Olson in the seat in front of her using his cell phone. Once the preview started, she saw her husband lean forward and say something to him. She says Olson barked back. He used the word **** or ****. He was very loud. And I think he used the word texting and his daughter. She says Reeves, a former police captain, wouldn't let Olsen's behavior go. He started to stand and he said, I'm going to go get the manager. And I said, let's just move. And he just continued on. How many times have scenes like that played out in a cinema where somebody's on the phone or somebody's texting or just

generally causing a disturbance, but for it to rise to the level of a shootout like the wild, wild west? When does that happen? Who are these people? Again, thanks for being with us here on Crime Stories. Let me introduce you an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. John W. Deal, personal entry lawyer, high-profile lawyer, joining us out of that jurisdiction, Winter Park, Florida, author of The Method, Proven Techniques for Winning Jury Trials. You can find him at johnwdeal.com. We're now on psychologists joining us out of Manhattan.

Karen Stark at karenstark.com. psychologist joining us out of manhattan karen stark at karen stark.com that's karen with a c greg smith longtime colleague special deputy sheriff johnson county sheriffs executive director of the kelsey smith foundation and you can find him at kelsey's army.com dr kendall crowns the chief medical examiner in Tarrant County. That's Fort Worth. Esteemed lecturer at University of Texas and Texas A&M and faculty at University of Texas Medical School. But first, to Christy Mazurek, Emmy Award winning investigative reporter. Christy Mazurek, I've gone and investigated where this happened there at

Wesley Chapel. It's a beautiful stretch of road, largely residential, but to the point where people still have deer walking through their backyards. It's got just enough of that to make it seem anything but urban? For sure. Affluent suburbia of Tampa. Tell me what we know about Wesley Chapel. Let's just start with that. Well, you know, it's very picturesque. This is not a place that is riddled with crime. Neighbors know neighbors, so this wouldn't be a location where things would become a fatal shootout in a movie theater. In a movie theater of all places, and there's something about that too, Karen Stark. When you go into a cinema, you kind of suspend your disbelief and you are into the movie. I kind of compare it to, for instance, being on a cruise ship. You're lulled into complacency. Your attention is elsewhere and everybody generally

feels safe. Everybody's there just to chill and see the movie. And people let their guard down. People are completely relaxed. As you said, Nancy. If you think about, you know, what horrible events have happened in movie theaters, what makes it even worse when there's anything going on there that doesn't have to do with watching the movie is that no one even begins to anticipate that something terrible would happen. You are entering a place where you're looking at a great big screen and your sense of reality has now altered because you're living through the movie. That's a good way to put it. Your sense of reality is altered because your focus is the movie

and what's happening there, an altered sense of reality. Interesting. Guys, take a listen now to our friends at WFTS. When Reeves came back, he sat down, but his wife says Olsen went crazy. What did Mr. Olsen say? You told on me. Who the f*** do you think you are? She says Olsen stood up, leaned forward, and she thought he was coming over the seats.

She says she's blocked out. What happened next? I just didn't know what had happened, and I just couldn't handle what happened. Reeve says her husband told her Olsen hit him in the face. The defense contends Olsen threw his cell phone at him. That phone was found on the floor. Meanwhile, as Olsen lay dying, an off-duty deputy who happened to be in the theater took Reeve's gun. I said, what happened? You can't shoot into a theater full of people, something something like that. And he said, not now. Yeah. And Vivian Reeves testified today that she turned away before the shot. She didn't see the popcorn fly. She did not see her husband shoot that gun. Let me understand what exactly happened because Chrissy Missouri

joining us, the shooter is Curtis Reeves and he's 79 years old, sitting in a dark cinema with wife Vivian. And as I understand it, he's retired law enforcement. Then you've got Chad Olson, 43, with his wife, Nicole. What ensued, Christy? Well, the Olson couple is sitting in the row ahead of the Reeves family. The lights dim and the previews start rolling. And that's when Chad Olson starts scrolling through his cell phone and was texting a babysitter. That's when the retired member of law enforcement kind of sits up in his seat and says, hey, can you put your cell phone down? And this war of words ensues, prompting Curtis Reeves to get up and go and get the manager. OK, hold on. Whoa.

So, 79-year-old Reeves asks 43-year-old Olsen to put down his cell phone, because he's scrolling through his phone, which is lighting up. I don't know if he's texting, calling, or what he's doing. The movie is starting, and Reeves says, hey, put down your cell phone. And Olsen, what, says says no what happened right there yeah not so kindly uh depending on on whose testimony you believe may have had a huge few harsh explicatives back to the retired cop and at that point where he stands up to go and tell the manager and And he says, I'm going to go get the manager. That's right. Then what happens? He comes back into the theater. At that point, Chad Olsen's cell phone is gone. So as Reeves sits down, he said, well,

you should have done that in the first place and I wouldn't have had to go and get the manager. Oh, I bet that was pouring gas on the fire right there. That's correct. That's when the argument erupted. Take a listen now to our cut 11. This is Gloria Gomez with Fox 13. Chad Olson's wife, Nicole, took the stand this afternoon and said that Reeves was rude and, like you said, was the aggressor. Now, she took the stand around three o'clock this afternoon. She described the moment that Reeves told her husband to put his phone away, that he demanded that he put his phone away. She says the next thing she remembers is her husband pretty much ignoring him. And then after that, she says she remembers him standing up. When she remembers that, she says she doesn't

remember too much. She felt something. But that's when prosecutors say that Chad Olson actually grabbed a bag of popcorn, threw it at Reeves. Reeves then pulled out his gun, shot and killed Chad Olson. This is how she remembers it and what she told the jury. Take a look. It felt like my hand was on fire. Just fire. It felt like my hand was blown off. To John W. Deal, joining us, high profile lawyer out of Florida. John, so often we see deadly shootings, other types of homicides stemming out of everyday occurrences like using a cell phone in the theater, somebody parking in the handicapped spot, someone cutting somebody off in the McDonald's drive-thru.

How often do you see a simple confrontation or disagreement like that suddenly erupt into homicide? confrontation or disagreement like that suddenly erupt into homicide well you know this is unfortunate and i think it's you know again like you mentioned before the wild wild west i mean a an altercation where people are disagreeing about texting and talking to the manager suddenly becomes a shootout and uh it's pretty shocking, especially in Wesley Chapel. I'm familiar with the area. It's really a bedroom type of community north of Tampa. It'd be similar to like Roswell to Atlanta.

It's an upper middle class area. Very nice. Really new home. It is nice. Those lots and those homes, they're beautiful. And behind them, John W. Deal, you can see forest land and pastures. It's really pretty. Yeah, very picturesque.

But certainly when you hear about shootings and movie theaters, you know, obviously it's happened in tragic situations like Aurora. But something like this is just really surreal. You know what the difference is, though? Because I immediately thought of Aurora, which is a great little town. I learned to dive with a woman who lives in Aurora, so it has a special spot in my heart. In that case, John Deal, didn't the perp go in like in SWAT gear? He meant to go in and scare everybody and shoot them all as opposed to a tiff over a cell phone oh absolutely i mean that's when i first heard

dress up as the joker oh that was him yes right exactly and he was mentally unstable clearly and you know committed a lot of murders there he was just an a-hole. I mean, you say potato, I say potato. Maybe a combination of the both. But certainly that's not a tip over somebody texting the movie theater, which I'm guilty of myself. You know, I have actually, I'm pretty sure, had somebody say, my phone, my cell phone rang. Or I was talking to the twins and somebody said, shh. And it did irritate me, but I was caught red handed.

And I just said, sorry, tried to stop what I was doing. Right. I didn't think I was angry. Not them. I was angry. I was caught doing that.

I think that's right. But I wouldn't have thrown my popcorn at the person or starting an all-out, or like when you cut somebody off and you seriously don't mean to, and they're all mad. I usually try as best as you can in traffic

to, you know, wave and say I'm sorry. But how does it escalate so quickly? And John, I always call you John W. Deal because there are probably other John deals. Yes, ma'am. And it's deals and deal pickle, correct? That's it, the real deal.

That's me. Okay, I'll go with that. So, John, I'm getting to, and I guess I'm going to shrink on this as well, but in your practice, you have a huge practice. Are you seeing more and more escalation of conflict over simple things where, you know, before if somebody cut you off in traffic, you go beep, and that would be it. Now, if you go beep, you might get shot in the face. Right, absolutely. And you mentioned before about the road rage situation.

In Florida, there's been quite a few cases where what was brought up in this case as far as the stay-at-the-ground law was used in a road rage situation as a defense. So it's really, things are escalating. It's not back when we were younger and maybe people would just yell at each other and that would be the end of it. Things escalate quickly, unfortunately, and tragedy. What did you say about using road rage?

What as a defense? No, Florida's standard ground law, essentially, which was used by Mr. Reeves, has been used quite a bit in a road rage situation. When somebody comes out of the car, walks up to the car, and the person in the car ends up shooting them. And then they say, listen, I was afraid that he was going to commit a felony on me, and that's a defense under Florida law. So that's basically what played out here. Hmm.

That's really, really gotten far afield of standing your ground, which I think goes all the way back to the Trayvon Martin case. It's one of the first times I heard stand your ground. Right. It's more. It's more. Yes, ma'am. It's more.

It's more quite a bit. I think originally it was the castle doctrine of somebody's breaking in your house. Into your home. Right. Exactly. But that's now morphed into somebody approaching you and you reasonably think or you say, hey, I thought he was going to commit a felony against me. With his popcorn.

Right. Okay. All right. Here we go. You know, Karen Stark, what about everyday situations now suddenly morphing into a homicide? I mean, Karen, you know how easygoing my husband David is usually? Of course I do. Something happens when he's behind the wheel of a car.

And he will like fuss at the other person. I have never seen him shoot a bird. Ever. But he'll fuss at the person and like speed up after them. I'm like, will you stop duck children? Because I'm afraid they're going to start shooting for Pete's sake. That is not unusual, Nancy. We are a very mild-mannered person. When you put them behind the wheel of a car, they get outraged and very stressed. Totally cray.

If you hit traffic and all of a sudden they can't stand it, they're angry at the other person in the car. And I think that everything has escalated, particularly since COVID and people are more frustrated. Oh, here you go. You blame everything on COVID. This was all happening before COVID, Karen Stark. Yes, but now it's even worse. You know, people don't feel they have control over their lives. But when you're in a car, there's this feeling, you know, you're protected by your car. And it's a feeling of, okay, now I can take control. I'm in charge. And everybody, they just have a trigger kind of a response to being cut off. Not everyone, but a lot of people.

What about it, Greg Smith? You hear Karen Stark and John Deal. You are the special deputy sheriff in Johnson County. Are you saying more crime stemming out of what you would categorize or we would categorize as stupid stuff can escalate into a violent confrontation fairly quickly. Why that is, why people feel the need to do that, if I had the answer, I could probably stop a lot of stuff, but I don't know what the answer is. Take a listen to our friends at Fox 13 Tampa Bay. What is your next observation? Chad, he takes a couple steps and he collapses. Are you concerned about your hand or your husband? Oh, my husband. I knew he was way worse than me. Chad Olson died a few minutes after that. Prosecutors say Reeves was angry and he overreacted to popcorn being thrown in his face.

But the defense says, no, that's not true. He was a 71-year-old man who feared for his life and had no choice but to shoot and kill Chad Olson. So Christy Mazur joining us, Emmy award winning investigative reporter, the wife, Nicole, was she also shot in the hand then? Correct. She tried to deflect the bullet out of just sheer fear and reaction. When the gun came out, she put her hand up, and the bullet blasted through her hand and eventually into Chad Olson's chest. So we're hearing the side of the Olsons, Chad Olson and wife Nicole. Chad Olson is a 43-year-old dad who was texting during the movie.

The retired cop, Curtis Reeves, 79, and wife, Vivian, sitting directly behind them, say, hey, turn off your phone. An argument ensues. Reeves gets up and goes to get the manager. When he comes back, Olson, furious that he had, quote quote told on him. Let's hear that their side of what happened. Take a listen to our cut 13 from WFTS. During hours long testimony Thursday, Curtis Reeves told a jury what he remembered in the moments before and after he shot Chad Olson eight years ago after an argument over the use of a cell phone. When I realized that it wasn't going to go off and that it was still shining in my face,

I leaned over and requested that he turn his phone off. Reeves told the jury he got profanities as a response back. He said he went to management and the situation later escalated. At some point, Reeves told the jury he believed he'd been hit, describing Olson during his testimony as volatile. I've never been encountered by somebody exhibiting that uncontrolled anger or rage. And all of the perceptors that you can imagine, whether it's verbal, physical, expression, at some point at that time, I had no other choice,

and I reached for my pistol. No other choice. He says that he was afraid he had been hit. He described Olson as volatile, that Olson had uncontrolled anger and rage, and that everything he observed verbally, physically, expression-wise, made him believe he had no choice but to pull his gun in the theater and shoot. Take a listen to more of their side, our Cut 14 WFTS. Reeves told the jury he didn't

want to shoot anybody. Did you shoot Mr. Olson because of popcorn? I shot Mr. Olson because I thought he was going to seriously injure me or potentially kill me. State prosecutors hit back, pressing Reeves on his de-escalation training as a former officer. The state also questioned Reeves over his previous statements and how he claims the situation unfolded. You're testifying that there's a,

I think it came out of six foot four, six foot four Chad Olson, who's full of rage, is virtually on top of you and he punches you or hits you hard with a cell phone so much so that you're dazed. Yet you easily bruise and there's not a single mark on your face. That's what you want this jury to believe. Yes, I do. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Straight out to Dr. Kendall Crowns, the chief medical examiner joining us out of Tarrant County. That's Houston. Dr. Kendall Crowns, if Reeves had been hit in the face with a cell phone, would there have been a mark? There should have been. I mean, a cell phone's heavy enough and thrown hard enough, there should have been some sort of injury on his face from it. But there's potential that if it hit a broad enough area and the force of the cell phone hitting the face was spread out about a long enough surface area that it caused more soft tissue damage than it did skin damage. Maybe on the cheek. If the phone hit some flat on the cheek, potentially it wouldn't have caused the bruise. It may have caused soft tissue or subcutaneous tissue hemorrhage, but not surface bruising.

But that's if it hits flat and on like the cheek. But if it hits on a corner, it should have caused an injury. What do we know about 43-year-old Chad Olson's gunshot wound? What can you tell us about that? So he had a gunshot wound in the chest. So potentially the gunshot wound would have involved his lung or his heart. The fact that he walked a few feet after he got shot, he didn't die immediately, but he probably was bleeding into his chest cavity as he was walking right before he collapsed. So it's potentially hit his lungs, his heart.

He's going to have trouble breathing. He's going to be coughing up blood, and then he's going to die within a few minutes. Why would he be coughing up blood? Anytime you get hit in the chest and it compromises your lungs, the airways that go into your lungs start getting hemorrhage in them and then you start kind of it causes irritation and then it causes you to cough and that causes you to start coughing up blood. Take a listen to our cut one this is Matt Gutman our friend at ABC. The Olsons were enjoying a rare night out. I was just so excited and looking forward to spending the day with the love of my

life. Before the movie started the screen lit up with that now familiar announcement, turn your phones off. Really? This is the most important scene when your cell phone rings? Chad Olsen sent one last text to the babysitter, and prosecutors say that annoyed the man sitting behind him, retired police captain Curtis Reeves. Police say the two men started arguing, Ben stood up at that point. Olsen threw popcorn at Reeves. Reeves pulled his handgun, fired and killed Olsen.

Reeves was charged with second degree murder. He's now claiming self-defense. He was hit in the face with an unknown object. At that point in time, he has every right to defend himself. But attorney Mark Iglar says that won't hold water. The problem is that popcorn traditionally isn't recognized as a deadly weapon. Okay, you are hearing not only Matt Gutman, our friend at ABC, but also attorney Richard Escobar and Mark Iglar. So, I guess I'm not understanding the facts. Even though they've been laid out in court, there's a lot of confusion over them, Christy Mazurick. Number one, did Olson just throw popcorn or did he strike Reeves in the face in the dark with a cell phone?

Which one? Based on, you know, the Olson family testimony, it was just popcorn. Based on Curtis Reeves and his family members. His glasses were skewed and the cell phone was found on the ground. And the Reeves family also argued they felt that Chad Olson was going to jump the chairs at Curtis Reeves. That's what eventually made him pull out his.38 caliber pistol. Have you seen Chad Olson? Have you actually seen a picture of him? Because right now I'm looking at him standing by his wife,

and in this picture I swear he looks like he's 6'7". Have you seen the picture? Oh, he's a big man. Oh, he's 6'4"? He looks even taller than that. He is a big guy. Typically, now anyway, there is surveillance video, security surveillance

video, especially in cinemas after the incident that John Deal brought up in Aurora, the theater shooting in Aurora that claimed many, many lives. And that, wasn't it correct, Christy Mazurk, wasn't there video surveillance in this case as well?

Yes. Take a listen to our friends at WFTS. Well, this new video shows how all this played out from multiple cameras set up around the movie theater. Immediately after the shooting, we see people run from Theater 10, pointing to someone off screen. But before the shooting, before Chad Olsen and Curtis Reeves ever even met each other, we see Reeves and his wife walk in after buying their tickets. Before the shooting, we also see Reeves leave the theater and go talk to an employee at the front desk. In court Friday, we saw this video for the first time when Olsen supposedly throws popcorn at Reeves before Reeves

pulls a gun and fires. This new angle from a camera on the opposite side of the theater shows people rushing to help Olsen after the shooting while Reeves is seated next to an off-duty officer. We spoke to a legal expert about the video this afternoon, specifically about that moment Reeves goes to talk to that theater employee. We also see Mr. Reeves come out of the theater. We see him approach the man who is at the service desk. And it would appear that the man at the service desk, although we had a conversation with him, took no action as a result of Mr. Reeves coming out to see him. And it's very clear Mr. Reeves is agitated. So, you know, I was missing right there, Greg Smith, any visual of olsen hitting reeves in the face with a cell phone or hitting

him at all i didn't hear that i didn't either and and there's so many things to consider here i mean you're in a movie theater it's dark already because they've already started running something on the screen you have two people with a confrontation. The person that at least fired the weapon is facing the screen. So his view of what's in front of him could be distorted, changed just because of the backlighting. I mean, it's a weird environment to be in to have a firefight. Not that it's uncommon for firefights to occur in weird situations. And what you see and what you perceive are the things that the court looks at in those situations. So it's difficult to make a judgment call here on what really happened because we really don't have the evidence to see what really happened.

And as so many other of the panelists have said, a cell phone can cause a lot of damage. This is a big guy. Maybe it was just as simple. He threw his popcorn at him and he overreacted. We just don't know. And so it's very, very difficult. You know, I'd love to see like a frame by frame of the security video that, you know, it might provide. I'm sure they did that in court, but might provide some information. John W. Deal, how difficult is it to enhance video of this nature? It's not as difficult as it used to be, certainly with all the digitals.

But it being a little bit more dark may be difficult. You know, I think what it really comes down to is just Mr. Reeves saying that he believed he was in danger seems to be a defense. Well, just because you think you're in danger, I mean, it goes back to the theory in law school of the eggshell head. Right. Some people have more propensity to, let's just say, crack their skull. That's true.

But that doesn't mean it's reasonable to believe if you fall down, you're going to fracture your skull. That's true. I mean, I could claim right now I'm in fear that Jackie's going to jump over the electronics board and shoot me in the head. But is that reasonable? Is that real? It's true.

Okay. Then we have, of course, let me just go ahead and throw another wrench in this, another wrinkle. Take a listen to our cut six WFTS. Years before Curtis Reeves shot and killed Chad Olsen inside a movie theater, Edward Thompson says he also had a confrontation with the retired police captain. In 2014, Thompson told ABC Action News he and a woman were at the Zephyr Hills Theater talking quietly in the back row during the previews. Reeves was close by. He's sitting in the seat and he turns like this and looks back towards us

and he says, why don't you shut up? Thompson says he politely asked Reeves to find another seat, but Reeves responded, saying, this is my seat, and I said, shut up. I talked to Thompson today. He says he's watching the case closely, even though he moved to Iowa. He says no one has contacted him about testifying. I wrote a letter to the state attorney about a month ago and told him, if you want me, give me a 72-hour notice

and I'll be there. Haven't heard nothing back. Okay, I would say, Karen Stark, that that's a reliable witness. You know why? Because in a witness, I look for detail. Any detail. That was very detailed.

And also, this guy remembers Reeves. All these years later, he's even moved to another state. He sees this and he goes, that's the same guy. That sounds believable to me. It sounds believable to me too, especially Nancy, since he said he's willing to go back, that they should contact him and testify against this guy. So obviously, he had an experience that stuck in his mind because it was that outrageous. The response was not, please be quiet. And you know what else I think, Karen Stark? I think sometimes you feel powerless that you've got a bully busing you, maybe in front of your family, in the theater, there's really nothing you can do about it. That kind of sticks with you.

Yeah, I think you're right, Nancy. And I think that, you know, it's humiliating because the person didn't say, please turn it off or speak nicely. He was a bully, just like you said. And then he's left with this memory in his mind of someone who just went out of their way to frighten him in a movie theater for no reason, really. And as we hear him saying, he heard nothing back from the state prosecutor, so I guess the jury never heard about that. Well, that's not all.

I hope you're sitting down. Take a listen to our cut seven from WFTS. Also in 2014, ABC Action News interviewed Michael and Jamira Dixon about an incident they say happened just weeks before Reeves killed Olsen. The Dixon's say at the same theater in Wesley Chapel, Reeves was also barking at them about texting during the previews. He's like, can you do me a favor? Can you please just stop texting?

Dixon says Reeves actually followed her out when she went to the bathroom. I was like, oh my God, what is wrong with this guy? After Reeves was arrested, both Thompson and the Dixons told us they instantly recognized him as the same man they had dealt with. All of them have spoken with authorities in the past, but it does not appear any will be asked to testify in the trial. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Also in 2014, ABC Action News interviewed Michael and Jamira Dixon about an incident they say happened just weeks before Reeves killed Olsen. The Dixon's say at the same theater in Wesley Chapel, Reeves was also barking at them about texting during the previews. He's like, can you do me a favor? Can you please just stop texting?

Dixon says Reeves actually followed her out when she went to the bathroom. I was like, oh my God, what is wrong with this guy? After Reeves was arrested, both Thompson and the Dixons told us they instantly recognized him as the same man they had dealt with. All of them have spoken with authorities in the past, but it does not appear any will be asked to testify in the trial. John Deal, that's what you call similar transactions cases where there may not have been an arrest or a conviction or maybe there was and you use them at trial to show modus method of operation modus operandi frame of mind course of conduct and here we see the same thing happening not just once before but twice before that we can verify.

Absolutely. I mean, it's called, you know, in Florida, Williams rule evidence or in the federal system for the evidence. But it's exactly the type of evidence that would rebut this thing. I was in fear for my life. It almost looks like this gentleman based on those folks was kind of looking for a fight, maybe wanting some reaction. Certainly would tend to show that this wasn't just an innocent man just sitting there attacking the popcorn suddenly, that there's probably something else operating going on and he has a gun with him. That would be key evidence, I would think. Many people questioning the testimony of Olson's wife, Nicole. But listen to what she had to say. This is our cut to WFTS. Her voice shaky, the emotion almost

instantly pouring out. Nicole Olson spoke for just about two minutes, seated right here at this conference table as her left arm was bandaged in a soft pink cast. Remember, she was shot too, she says, trying to shield her husband from the gunfire. Listen as Nicole takes us back to that afternoon when she says an argument over texting escalated to her husband being shot to death. Me and my husband didn't get a date night very often, much less a whole day to spend together. So I was just so excited and looking forward to spending a day with the love of my life you know at a place of entertainment you know family entertainment and just to think that in the blink of an eye my whole world just got shattered into a million pieces and now I'm

left trying to pick them up and put them all back together and it's so hard and it's so unbearable but I want to thank you all and Nicole went on to tell us her focus now will remain on her young daughter Alexis a girl too young to understand why her father is now gone now what you're hearing is typically something lawyers tell their clients not to do that was Nicole Olson speaking just a week or so right after the shooting. You don't normally want a witness to do that because even if they get one fact wrong or they leave something out, that will be used against them at trial and cross-examination as if they're making up the story or adding to it or changing it.

But the emotion in her voice seems very real. To Dr. Kendall Crowns, what does this sound like happened to the wife, Nicole Olson's hand? It sounds like she was trying to either, she had her hand on her husband's chest for whatever reason, and the bullet passed through one of her fingers. So potentially she could have lost a finger. It could have been severed off, but it's not like she had extensive tissue damage and probably musculoskeletal damage to her hand or finger. That pain must have been intense, but she says she immediately ran to her husband, who was obviously in much worse shape than she was.

Dr. Kendall Crowns is, there are a lot of arteries on the body which if severed or punctured, you'll die. You've got, of course, the carotid artery. You have the femoral artery in your leg what else I guess your wrist what other major vein would cause a bleed out immediately even if it's for instance in the arm or the leg arm or leg you can get radial artery in the arm or ulnar artery in the arm cause a lot of loss of blood in a quick fashion. Where is that on your arm, the ulna or the radial? It would be kind of in your forearm, near the crease of your elbow going down. Okay. The leg, there's also the popliteal artery, which is behind your knee cap or behind your

knee, basically. It's a fairly good size artery that you're going to bleed out from, not as rapidly as like your femoral artery, but it's still going to be a major bleeder. Where's the femoral on your leg? Inner thigh. Inner thigh, okay. I was just thinking about the wife Nicole being shot and how many people think, oh, well that's minor.

It's not really always minor. When you get shot on an appendage, you can actually bleed out very quickly with some of the arteries that Dr. Kendall Krause was describing. So regarding the enhancement of the videotape, you're hearing, first of all, Nicole Olson describing a very, very emotional time after her husband is shot down in a movie theater. But what does the hard evidence show? Take a listen to cut three WFTS. When that tape was played, the lights in the courtroom were turned down. We looked over to Curtis Reeves and saw that he was in fact watching this tape.

We spoke to our legal expert about the tape and what he saw when he watched it at first glance the camera inside theater 10 seems to show empty seats but look close toward the bottom right you can see an interaction between two men curtis reeves and chad olsen the defense says olsen first threw his cell phone at reeves they played this looped video in court and say the small flash of light is the phone. Moments later, the confrontation turned deadly. We asked our legal expert, Jeff Schwartz, what he saw when he watched the video. Mr. Olson gets up, reaches across his seat, grabs Mr. Reeves' popcorn, and throws his own popcorn at him. And almost instantaneously, Mr. Reeves pulls his gun and fires.

Wow, so you do see the throwing of the cell phone. But throwing the cell phone is not hitting him or beating him in the face with the cell phone. All these questions played over and over in the minds of the jurors, and it culminates. Take a listen to Hour Cut 16. Would you please publish the verdict? In the courts of the 6th Judicial Circuit, N and 4 of Pasco County, Florida, State of Florida v. Curtis Judson Reeves, count 1, murder in the second degree.

Verdict. We the jury finds as follows. The defendant is not guilty. So say we all this 25th day of February 2022. Juror number two, four person. Count two, aggravated battery. Verdict. We the jury finds as follows. The defendant is not guilty. So say we all this 25th day of February 2022, juror number two, for a person. Not guilty. That not guilty has reverberated across the state. What about it, Christy Mazurik? Well, now the judge in this trial really pushed back against the stand your ground defense. And now gun control

activists are starting to band together as we speak, Nancy, to try to repeal stand your ground laws, not only in Florida, but the over 30 of them within the U.S. that are on the books. We wait as justice unfolds, but for the family of Chad and Nicole Olson, that is the end. There is no way to appeal an acquittal. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.