Joseph Smith was sentenced to death for raping and murdering Carlie Brucia after kidnapping the 11-year-old girl from a Florida car wash in 2004. Florida's high court has overturned the death sentence and ordered a new sentencing trial for Smith. Nancy Grace is outraged and discusses the case with Marc Klaas, criminal lawyer Brian Claypool, lawyer and psychologist Dr. Brian Russell, and WFLA-TV reporter Meredyth Censullo. Two years have passed since Texas mom Missy Bevers was beaten to death inside a church by a killer dressed in makeshift SWAT gear. Midlothian, Texas, police have no suspect despite security camera video of the killer at the crime scene. Grace updates the probe with radio host David Mack and Crime Stories co-host Alan Duke.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph Channel
one two. A little girl, just eleven years old goes
to spend the night party with her little best friend
girl just about a block and a half from home.
She's walking home the next morning to her family home,
(00:30):
to her mom and dad, and goes catty corner. She
cut instead of going all the way to the corner
and turning right, she cuts across the lot of a
local car wash and she is never seen alive again.
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
(00:51):
being with us. In a bizarre and very upsetting turn
of events, the murderer the man that approached eleven year
old Carly in that car wash parking lot and takes
her away, brutally rapes, beats and kills her. Her body
(01:17):
is found half naked, naked from the waist down, she's
wearing one sock, and her body has been thrown into
a wooded area behind a local church. He may very
well walk free. Why because appellate courts have ruled that
when a jury in Florida sentenced him to the death
(01:39):
penalty and attended to vote, that wasn't good enough. They
had found unanimously that he was guilty in Carly's murder,
but two people held out on the death penalty, ten
voted for it, and he was sentenced to death. He's
been languishing on death row all this time, writing dozens
of appeals that have all been turned down, until finally
(02:00):
he strikes pay dirt with me an all star panel
first and foremost founder of Class Kids Foundation, Mark Class
tireless advocate for crime victims after his daughter Polly was
kidnapped and murdered many years ago. Meridith Sincelo joining us
(02:22):
on the scene. W f l A. Brian Russell, host
of investigation Discoveries, hit show Fatal Vows and high profile
defense attorney out of California. Brian Claypool, who has practiced
often in the Florida justice system, out to Meridith Sinceulo
w f l A. The day that Curly goes missing,
(02:46):
the day that she is assaulted, beaten, and murdered, I
don't have to do a lot of digging because it's
caught on camera. It is caught on video as we
see her killer. UH guy with a long criminal history,
Joseph Smith, then thirty seven years old. UM he had
(03:07):
been arrested many times, convicted many times. An unemployed car
mechanic drug user currently had just had a violation of
his probation and was released just in time to abduct Carly.
He's seen on camera taking her, taking her by the arm,
(03:27):
and taking her out of the parking lot. So what happened.
How was her body found? Well, her body was found
behind a church area. As you've mentioned, she was mostly
nude as she had been strangled with some type of cord. UM.
There was obvious signs that she had tried to defend
(03:47):
herself UM but was not able to UM. There was
signs of a sexual assault UM and uh at first,
Joseph snitch just want to to confess to this. But
they were able to find her little body UM about
five days after she went missing. And as you've mentioned
(04:10):
that now famous surveillance tape, really it's just so sad
to look back at it. In fact, revisited it today
just to take another look. And and you see those
last moments where that man, Joseph Smith approached Carly and
appeared to have a conversation with her and then grabbed
her hand and led her away. And that's the last
(04:31):
time that she was seeing passed a chain link fence
in a wooded area behind a local church. Investigators find
eleven year old Carly. It was early on Friday, but
hours later cops charge Joe P. Smith, a thirty seven
(04:51):
year old auto mechanic with a long criminal record, with
first degree murder and kidnapping, and vowed that day that
they will se seek the death penalty. Tips were phoned
into investigators by people who recognized him from the surveillance video.
That video had caught Carly's actual abduction behind the car
(05:12):
wash on Sunday. As meredithince Hulo just told you, at first,
he refuses to talk, but he confided in somebody, and
that somebody led police to the body just three miles
from the car wash. How she was tortured, how she
was actually killed remained a mystery for quite some time.
(05:37):
She lived a short distance away from the sleepover with
me Mark, Class of Class Kids Foundation, Mark, Polly, your
daughter was having a sleepover the night that she went missing,
but in her mom's home. Right. Yes, this, this whole
conversation is making me numb. If anybody on the face
(05:58):
of the earth deserves the death penalty, it would be
a revetivious of recitivious violent offender that that abducts and
tortures and murders a tiny little girl. And I think
the lesson here that we all have to understand is
that it doesn't matter how well prepared children are there
(06:18):
there they've they've got no chance against a determined predator.
And that's exactly what we see in this situation. She
didn't want to go with him, there's no question about that.
But he had his way. He was determined, and the
idea that he may be getting off of death row,
or that he has gotten off of death row and
needs to have another hearing, is a travesty of justice.
(06:41):
It was about six fifteen PM that Sunday evening, still
daylight hours. Very I mean, if you see the video,
it looks like it's a high noon. It was that
Sunday afternoon. She's leaving her little friend's house after a sleepover,
hited for home less than a mile away, officials. Police
say a security camera behind the car wash spots a
(07:06):
yellow Buick station wagon driven into the parking lot just
three minutes before Carly is kidnapped. Obviously, Smith saw Carly
walking home through the parking lot and pulled his vehicle
to the back to conceal what he was doing to
approach Carly. But then at six that camera catches him
(07:30):
approaching Carly, grabbing her by the wrist, and leading her away.
That video was played over and over and over, and
the nation's eyes turned towards the search for Carly Brucia.
I remember so well her dad, Joe, thanking investigators and
(07:51):
calling on the governor to investigate whether judges went too
easy on dealing with Smith and all of his previous arrests.
I agree with her father to Brian Claypool, you're the
expert defense attorney. Why was this guy let out over
(08:12):
and over and over again only to murder Carly and
now he's got a new hearing? Well, Nancy, to me,
I think the bigger question is how is it that
he gets sentenced to death and then the court reverses
that and now gives him a resentencing hearing. Why is
that a bigger question to you? Because why is it
(08:34):
a bigger question to you than a repeat offender killing
a little girl? Let's talk about that Florida. Florida prison
systems are saturated, much like California prison systems, So you
get these prisoners in there, and they and they let
him out early. We've heard this and seen this time
after time, so you're right, this case, this tragic case.
(08:56):
And by the way, I have an eleven year old
daughter as well, so this tem to me. But again,
this is also about a systemic failure within our prison systems.
And that's all I can tell you about that. I mean,
I don't know what more we can do. But a
jury finds him guilty, there are no trial errors. He's
had dozens of appeals and finally he hits paid dirt
(09:18):
when an appellate court sitting in there Ivory Tower says, oh,
you know the law that after you've been found guilty
of murdered with aggravating circumstances, which are you kill more
than one person, you kill a child, it's a murder
for hire, it's a torture. It's in the commission of
another felonies such as rape. I know he's found guilty
(09:41):
of that, but you know what, that was unanimous. But
when they vote attend to do for the death penalty,
I don't like that. So I'm gonna order a whole
new hearing on the death penalty. This guy is loving it,
isn't it true? Meridisin culo, He's filed dozens of appeals
on all kind of wacky grounds. Fine, only he gets
some judge to go along with him. Yeah. Absolutely, he
(10:04):
has tried multiple times to appeal this. But it was
actually because of a Florida Supreme Court ruling that Smith
is going to be re sentent um. And that's because
in his case, it was a tend to tend to
to um as far as the jury goes, and because
the judge was the one that actually made that decision
(10:27):
that he would get the death penalty, that sentencing phase
is now going to be retried because it's been determined
that that actually is a violation of the sixth Amendments.
So that's why we're going to see um this new
penalty phase. Nancy, Nancy, can I make one point on that? Sure,
(10:47):
this is really interesting, and this is where I think
there was a major flaw. Even though this Supreme Court case,
the Hearst case, came down and said you needed unanimous
vote for death death sentence under the sixth Amendment. I
read the opinion and here here's an interesting point. The
the the the the Florida Supreme Court was analyzing this
(11:11):
from a standpoint of that they still were going to
enforce this death penalty if there was an if the
prosecutor could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the two
jurors who who held out on the death penalty, that
that was harmless air. So, in other words, had the
trial judge developed a more copious record of what those
(11:33):
two jurors didn't agree on, for example, where they just
hung up on a mitigating factor and one aggravating factor,
if it was something that was truly harmless, the Florida
Supreme Court was still going to allow Smith to be
sentenced to death. But that but since there was no
written record of what these two holdout jurors were hung
(11:54):
up on, the Florida Supreme Court was the handcuffed You
know what to you, Mark class, this is how more
to you, more than to anyone what he had to say,
and all that legal mumbo jumbo he just spouted out, Well,
legal mumbo jumbo always seems to serve these killers, you know,
it always seems to play in their favor. Carly isn't
(12:16):
even a player in this thing anymore. She's nothing more
than the currency that that drove us to this place,
and you know, here, here's the thing. And we just
had this in a case here in California, and it
was a death penalty case. And once it came to
the penalty phase, one juror held out, one juror told
the other jurors that there was no way on earth
(12:37):
they would that they would ever, that they would ever
sentence anybody to death. So it was a ringer. It
was somebody who lied to get into that position, to
spare this piece of garbage. And it's difficult, it's so
difficult to get these guys on death row where they
absolutely deserve to be in the beginning. But then there
are always there's always seems to be a way out. Um,
(13:00):
it's it's preposterous. Again. This whole death penalty thing, this
whole death sentenced thing in this country has become kind
of a joke because of the abolitionist. You know, and
take a listen to this guy, the thirty seven then
thirty seven year old white male car mechanic, unemployed. Listen.
(13:20):
His arrest record includes a violent attack and numerous drugs charges.
In fact, he wants to beat a woman in the
face with a motorcycle helmet, just beat her mercilessly in
the face. What did you do for that aggravated assault?
He did about sixty days behind bars. Then he violates probation.
(13:43):
What happens? Then he gets straight out of jail. It
happens over and over and over with this guy, and
the judge blames probation department. The probation department blames the judge.
The judge start whining that it's not his fault that
he just followed the law, and blames the probation department.
(14:06):
It was Judge Harry Rapkin. So long story short, he
violated probation twice in one year, but probation officers never
recommended jail time. He was never arrested, so he's out
walking free. It happens upon Carly Brescia, you know, to
Brian Russell, the host of the hit show on Investigation Discovery,
(14:30):
fatal vows please weigh in. Okay, So, Nancy, we hear
a lot of talk lately, and I think we heard
just a little bit of it today about mass incarceration.
We have our jails are too crowded, We've got too
many people locked up. Well, you know what, when we
have a lot of people doing a lot of destructive stuff.
(14:51):
Then I actually like a lot of jails with a
lot of people in him for a lot of years.
We have to understand that the number one duty of
government is to protect the citizens from physical attack from
enemies other places in the world and from people right
here at home. The justice system and the correction system,
(15:14):
although I don't think we correct anybody very often. It's
it's more the public safety system that the segregation system
for dangerous people from the rest of us. That is
really just national defense at the at the domestic level,
and there's nothing more important for the government to do.
So you know, whatever it cost, what is the cost
of not doing it. It's stuff like this happening to
(15:36):
innocent Americans and so that the cuts have to come elsewhere.
This is not the place to skimp as a society.
If we ran the system the way that we should,
this guy never would have had the opportunity to kill
Carly Brussia. And then the second thing I would say
is if we ran the prison system the way that
(15:58):
we should, spending the rest of his life in it
should actually be worse than basically painless little injection and
he goes to sleep and never wakes up. But because
we supply air conditioning and cable television and workout rooms
and all this stuff is why it's not. And that's nuts.
Were one of the few societies in the world that
(16:20):
hasn't figured out you want prison to be a place
that nobody ever wants to be or go back to,
you know, to Meritus is Hulo w f l A.
That evening that Sunday when she was walking home that afternoon,
she had spent the night, as I said, at her
friend's house, and the little girl's mother said Carly wanted
to walk home and that she had permission from her mom.
(16:42):
So Carly leaves and the other mom just for some reason,
called Carly's mom and found out Carly was wrong. She
got it wrong. She didn't have permission to walk home.
So Carly's stepdad, Steve Canceler, immediately goes to get her
because they know she's walking home. And it was almost
immediate she was gone, right, I believe it was within
(17:05):
thirty minutes. I mean, it was just a matter of moments. Um.
But as Mr Klashes said, um, you know, it only
takes that short period of time, you know, just walking
a couple of blocks. But you know, that that the
mother of the little girl that Carly was staying with,
just to her something wasn't right. You know, she made
(17:28):
that decision to call Carly's parents just to make sure
it was okay, um, for Carly to make that walk.
And as soon as they realized no, she shouldn't be
doing this, they were out there, they were looking, but
you know, she was already gone. Um. It was a
span of I think six minutes from when Joseph's miss
Carr was spotted pulling up to that car wash and
(17:50):
then the time when he was seen leading Carly away.
So just in that six minute span of time she disappears. Um.
And you know, it's it's such a short time frame there,
but it only takes moments. And unfortunately that's what happened here.
And and that video hit the air waves and people,
(18:12):
you know, recognize the cars, some people even recognize Mr Smith.
But you know, but it was already too late for Carly.
In just a matter of moments, Carly was gone. The
guy is convicted and sentenced to death row, but now
a stunning about turn, an appellate court has ruled the
(18:34):
death penalty in his case is thrown out, and there
may very well be not only any hearing, but him
escaping his sentence. Take a listen to Carly's father, Joe Brucia,
after he learns about this appellate decision. It's one of
the things. It's it's it's favoring the criminals over the
(18:55):
the innocent victims. Are Is it just more ways attorneys
to make bullible hours, because it certainly doesn't make any sense.
I mean, it's it's the thing that comes to my mind.
Take a listen to Carly's mom before she passed away.
I was one of the most precious things to me
in my life because of an animal, a disgusting, perverted animal.
(19:21):
If I could speak to him, I'd like to know
why he chose my butter and why he had to
kill her. And I'm sure she let him know that
she was only eleven years old. How could he go
through with it? Even the jury four person, Ron Cruzel,
who was the jury four person on that Joseph Smith
murder trial, speaks out there was no question that Joe
(19:44):
Smith was guilty, no question at all. You had to
see the pictures. You had to realize the life that
was taken and how it was taken. I will use
the word us evil. Joe Smith will die. Whether he
(20:06):
dies in prison or whether he dies on the table
with I VS in his arm, He's going to die,
and at that point he'll be faced with what he's
done in his life, just like we are. The disappointment
(20:28):
running deep in this case. For those of you just
joining us, eleven year old Curly Brucia is kidnapped, beaten,
brutally raped, and found seeming new dumped in woods behind
a local church in Florida. A man on death row
(20:48):
for the murder of eleven year old Curly has now
finally one an appeal. Now, let me understand something to
Brian Claypool, lawyer joining US, I profile lawyer out of California. Brian,
when we say a reman on the sentencing, they're only
going to retry the penalty phase. The guilt innocence phase
(21:12):
remains intact. They're gonna retry the sentencing phase. Correct, Nancy,
great question, But here's the problem with that. How in
the world are you going to convince twelve jurors to
give this bug a death sense Unless you have to
put on all the evidence of how horrible the crime was,
(21:33):
you can't get around putting on the liability phase to
get this this this death sentence that you want, so
talk about a way, you know, all the taxpayer money.
I mean, like Mark was saying, sometimes the laws just
talk comport with public sentiment, common sense. I mean, they're
gonna have to spend a lot of money and a
lot of time. They're they're gonna have to go into
(21:54):
the details of the crime to get the jury aroused
enough to get this guy at death sense, don't you say, well,
you know what, you know what Mark class, bring it on.
I mean, if I was prostituting tastes fine, I'd bring
it all back on and get another death penalty sentence
on this guy. You do not take an eleven year
old little girl walking home a few blocks, kidnap her,
(22:19):
beat her at rape her, and murder her and then
you escape the death penalty. You do you do? You
go after if you take it, and you do everything
you can to make sure the jury understands who this
guy is and what he did so that they will
again vote for him to have the death penalty. This
is a situation where where justice failed this little girl
(22:43):
and most certainly has failed her father. Can you even
imagine what that man is going through, realizing who this
guy is and what he's done, and all of a sudden,
the state of Florida says, well, yeah, but we're going
to take him off a death row. Mark, you raised
a good point. You raise a good point. You know,
their problems with their justice systems, And Nancy mentioned like
these probation officers that let him sixty days for aggravating assault.
(23:07):
The problem we have is immunity. There's there's their civil
immunity to all these probation officers, all the law enforcement investigating,
all the judges who make these horrible decisions that lead
to the death of children. They all have immunity in
the civil system. So maybe it's time to revoke that.
Oh that drives me crazy. Brian Claypool and you know
(23:29):
Brian Russell joining me, host of the hit investigation discovery
show Fatal Vows. We've talked about this so many times
when de Facts Department, Family Children's Services CPS fails to
follow up on cases and children end up dead. Same
thing here. I think they should all be prosecuted like
these probation officers. They let killers slip through the cracks.
(23:50):
Brian Well, I agree with that, but I think that
before it gets to that point, we as a society
have got to take away the discretion that not only
these people have, but also our judges to give. So
I don't understand. I'm a psychologist, and I still don't
understand the sympathy that people have in this society for
(24:15):
people who do wantingly, uh consciously destructive stuff to other people.
But we've for whatever reason, they do, and they're making
it into positions like judge ships and these probation officer
roles where they have the ability to act out their
sympathy by letting these people back loose on the rest
of us. We've got to we have got to take
(24:36):
that discretion away with stiffer mandatory minimums for more stuff.
And also another thing we need to do is get
rid of concurrent sentencing. It is absolutely ridiculous that somebody
can commit three felonies and end up being sentenced for
each one of them concurrently. So basically you get two
(24:57):
felonies free. You know, commit one felony, get two felonies
for It's like having a sale at a resale. It's
like three for one. It's like three for one at
a store. Um, guys, what what makes it even worse
as it all plays out on camera? When this monster
killer caught on camera snatching a little girl before raping
(25:20):
and murdering her, and now he may dodge the death penalty.
Long story short, He's caught on closed circuit TV. It
captures the moment that a thirty seven year old mechanic
steals Curly Brucia. Her battered little body is found in
wooded area behind a church. Sarah Soda, Florida. This guy
(25:45):
has filed so many appeals they've all fallen on deaf
ears until now, and he has been handed a lifeline
thanks to an appellate court meridor Sinceulo w f l A.
Another issue is this, This decision by this appellate court
is years after Curly's killer was sentenced, but they're applying
(26:07):
the decision retroactively. Does that mean everybody on the death
row is going to get a nice sentencing hearing a
new trial. Well, so, what we know is that in
sixteen that the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that our
best sentence in system here in Florida violated that six
Amendment of course, which requires that a jury, not a judge,
(26:29):
imposed a death sentence so in looking at this case,
it did determine that that this particular case didn't hold up,
and so that's why his sentence of death was was
remanded for a new penalty phase. Now. I don't know
(26:50):
how many cases at this point have been put under
this same microscope, but it is very possible that we
are going to see some of the other high profile
cases um just to have to go through this all
over again, because you know, we're looking at um, what
I think, twelve years now, and he was sentenced in
(27:11):
two thousand six, so you know, twelve years he's been
sitting on death row and now we're going to be
be going through this again. So I definitely think that
this is something that we will see more cases coming
to this. Unfortunately, well, the mother, Carly's mother passed away
(27:34):
just a month after hearing about the possibility of the
killers release her daughter's killers release. Carly's mother has passed away,
leaving behind just her father to continue the fight for
justice on behalf of his daughter, his eleven year old
girl that was murdered. I can still remember when Carly
(27:58):
was just missing, before we had the awful knees. Listen,
we have pound Carly and the person responsible for her murder.
This follows us to current one of the charges. The
defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree has
charged Nancy. The jury that convicted Joseph Smith heard recordings
of phone calls the killer made from jail to his family,
(28:20):
including this one with his mother. The thing that you
could do is to try and explain it with an accident.
I know that, Joe. You don't think that the case
of Carly's killer is heading back to court in a
(28:41):
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of now. We had two Texas in the case of
a beautiful young mom of two girls who lives with
the girls and her husband. She's a supermom. She gets
(29:24):
up at like three o'clock every morning and goes to
teach a gladiator aerobics class in the local church before
she gets back home and makes the breakfasts and the
launches and gets everybody to school and does all of that.
She gets to church and somehow ends up bludgeoned and
(29:47):
stabbed dead. And in the wake of her murder, surveillance
footage emerges. Surveillance footage capturing catching an unknown person breaking
into that creek side Church of Christ and creeping around
wearing decked out in full police swat gear. Now I
(30:14):
believe the swat gear is cobbled together because it looks
like a motorcycle helmet and motorcycle boots and other items
bought here and there to resemble a swat outfit. Wandering
around the church, never steals anything but waiting for Missy
(30:34):
Beavers to arrive. And when Missy does arrive, she is
bludgeoned and stabbed dead. No theft, no sex attack, nothing
taken from Missy, nothing taken from the church, and the
killer vanishes with me. Dave mac on the story Dave
(31:00):
act the murder of Missy Beavers still unsolved. You know,
you'd think with surveillance video you could identify the person,
but their face was covered. Dave there, you know, you
pointed out that it looked like it was a cobble
together outfit, that it wasn't something generally speaking that we're
used to seeing in terms of tactical gear. But the
other part about this is that the person in the
(31:22):
gear was well. First of all, he had a hammer,
you know that that's not the most common tactical gear.
On top of that, he had a very distinctive gait.
He had a very distinctive walk. And I'm wondering as
they went live with that video almost immediately after this happened,
and nobody's identifying who the person is that walks like that.
(31:43):
It's a distinctive struct you know, of course says she's
married with children. You've got this killer unidentified in the video.
Clearly that's who murdered Missy. All eyes turned on the husband,
as they always do when a wife is killed. You
always look at the husband first. Joining me. Brian Russell,
(32:05):
the host of investigation discoveries hit show Fatal Vows. Brian
when the search warrants were later revealed they let the
cat of the bag. That one, at least one of
the married people involved, husband and wife have been having
an affair. Okay, that cat was out of the bag
(32:26):
and that made the scrutiny on the husband even more intense.
But the reality, yes, he was on a fishing trip
several states away with eyewitness alibis at the time Missy
was murdered. A couple of things, Statistically speaking, You're absolutely right.
It's much more like you're much more likely if you're
going to be murdered, to be murdered by somebody you know,
someone close to you, than you are by a stranger.
(32:47):
The second thing is, I can tell you from six
years of Fatal Vows that the number one reason people
end up on our show is because of infidelity in
the marriage. Really that over money, yes, money being number two.
And the third thing is probably number three is probably
uh strife around uh, you know, trying to merge families
and have step kids and all of that kind of stuff.
(33:09):
Joining me right now, high profile lawyer out of the
California jurisdiction, Brian Claypool. Brian, the reality is one of
my best friends is a female defense lawyer, criminal defense.
She specializes in dope. Okay, she'll handle the occasional divorce case.
She's told me a million times, Nancy, I would rather
defend a killer at trial than represents somebody in a
(33:34):
divorce because the other side is liable to drive by
my house and shoot me through the living room window.
For Pete's sake. Divorces they're just so acrimonious and bitter
that that that they're unfathomable the anger that comes up
during divorces or marital discord. So naturally you look at
(33:55):
the husband. I think it's a good pointing if you
look at I mean, there wasn't a murder in the
Delhia depolite occasion me. You know, I conducted two trials
tru Dahlia, and at the center of that that that
case and and the alleged murder, for higher was what
you're talking about, marital discord, the the the the the
(34:15):
the acrimony that existed in that marriage that led to
desperation and helplessness. And and I think that's that's what
we're talking about here as well. And and and that
probably is the is the angle that law enforcement has
to really focus on this investigation. We were talking about
the brutal murder of a young, beautiful mom of two girls,
(34:41):
Missy Beavers. So question to you, Dave Mac, syndicated talk
show host joining us and investigative reporter on this story. Dave,
It's amazing to me that even now no one has
been taken into custody for questioning nothing. You know, Nan
see that. You know, there's a no statute of limitations
(35:02):
when it comes to murder, So they've got to they've
got to cross their teas into aut their eyes. But
one of the things that I was looking at, and
all of this going back to the made up, the
put together tactical gear, the hammer as a murder weapon,
you've got um online flirtation by Missy by the way,
and a husband who has some kind of ironclad alibi. Well,
(35:25):
what was the bloody shirt that his father had two
days later trying to get cleaned that he claims was
from breaking up a dog fight. It just seems awfully
odd that somebody that close to a very bloody murder
would have a T shirt covered in blood trying to
get it clean, and the police pulling the search warrant
to go get it. Well, according to the crime lab
(35:46):
analyst to Alan Deep, didn't it turn out to be
true that he had broken up a dog fight right there?
That was a rabbit hole that didn't pan out as
a really well I don't know if I've referred to
as a rabbit hole. That usually referred to thing that
doesn't is irrelevant, doesn't make any sense. I mean, you
got a murder case like Dave Max talking about, where
there's a ton of blood at the scene and then
(36:08):
the father in law jumps up with a bloody shirt
he tries to get cleaned. I would absolutely have investigated
that if I were the police, but it turned out
it had nothing to do with the case, had nothing
to do with it. They were able to rule that out.
I've been corresponding, as you know, with Brandon Beaver's the husband,
for some time, and we've reported some of this, of course,
(36:29):
some of his emails to us. And let me point
out two things that are really interesting about this. He
suggested in one email back in December that his daughters
don't really want the person arrested and apprehended. Remember that
email he sent to us. He says the children are
not terribly fond of apprehending this person. They don't want
(36:50):
to revisit those emotions. They've told me this, But let
me update you on that the oldest daughter, this is
a rural area. One of her hobbies is to raise hogs,
you know, four age kind of thing. You did that.
I don't know if you ever had a hog, but
I did not have a hog. Um. I focused on
learning to can vegetables and fruits, make jams and jellies,
(37:13):
an interior design, as well as forestry and landscaping and
public speaking. But thank you for suggesting that I raise pigs.
Go ahead place, Well maybe you should have, because it
was pretty profitable for her. She sold her prize hog
at auction just recently for fifteen thousand dollars. The reason
(37:37):
that it went so high was the community came out
and up the bid because she wanted that money to
go to the department, the police department, to help investigate,
and she had an earmark. But then the police chief said,
you know, we really don't need this, We're well funded,
so she ended up giving it to special needs kins.
(37:57):
My point being that that oldest daughter is so anxious
to find the killer of her mom that she did that,
And I think that speaks a lot. Guys. Just recently
we spoke with the assistant police chief there in Middle
Opian assistant chief of police, Kevin Johnson. Take a listen
to this. So the most recent activity, UM involves the
(38:21):
assignment of a new detective, and that was something that
was done as a matter of just a personnel move UM,
not not particularly related to this investigation. But nonetheless, what
the new investigator is doing is really spending a lot
of time entrenching himself in the investigation and and and
(38:42):
pouring over the information that's been collected, such as interviews, statements,
reports from officers, and um, you know, the follow up
information from some of the tips received. So just trying
to become familiar with the case. Is there any new
information to share with us as far as auspects, persons
of interest, or anything in the case? No, sir, No, sir,
(39:04):
Unfortunately there is not. It's been two years and this
is one of the more remarkable cases I've ever seen.
With all this video of the crime scene at the
time or thereabouts at the time, it's got to be
frustrating that you've got so much evidence yet no suspects,
no persons of interest. Yeah. Absolutely, it's frustrating, you know,
obviously most frustrating for the family, I'm sure, frustrating for
(39:27):
our community. Uh, and of course frustrating for the police
officers involved in the investigation. You know that we don't
we have a lot of evidence we have don't have
the right evidence. Um, you know, and I've said before,
you know, police police evidence rooms are full of videos
and DVDs of video of unknown people committing crimes, and
(39:49):
it's really frustrating. I think the public perception is that
when you have a video, and you have a personal video,
you know that you know, in short order you can
figure out who that person is. The fact is that
this person went to great links to conceal their identity.
And you know, other than the unusual gait and some
some observations about the stature, um you know, there there's
(40:11):
not even much skin showing, you know, So what we
can say for sure just has more to do with
skin tone than than than other important details that would
lead us to an identification. I get these emails and
these messages from people who think that there are investigators,
these web sleuths. If you will, I know you got
them too. Has that been helpful? Do you think or
(40:33):
is it just just background noise. I will tell you
that a lot of the information that we receive is
is a combination of speculation, uninformed inferences and assumptions. Um.
You know. Early on in the investigation, there was a
particular photo that circulated. UM Where it originated and who
(40:57):
made it? I couldn't tell you. It certainly didn't from
the police department. Um. But a lot of people saw
that and it it appeared to be compelling to them,
and and they took it, uh you know, as as
an official piece of evidence. Um you know. And when
you combine you know, tips of that nature with with
(41:17):
you know, five or five or six seven other tips,
uh of dubious origin, if you will, uh you know,
it's it's easy to understand why a person would combine
those together into um, you know, a theory that makes
sense to them, and believe that it has some viability
and feel compelled to award it to the police. In
(41:37):
each instance that we've we've dug through that information, there
have had there have been some small helpful bits of information,
but by and large, unfortunately, uh, the bulk of it
has not been particularly helpful. UM. Now I say that
not wanting to discourage anybody from from from forwarding any
information or reaching out to us. Um, you know, because
(42:00):
it's our job to to to sift through that and
determine it's it's it's credibility, you know. So, um, I
certainly don't want to discourage that. But but buying large
that you know a lot of information has just been
mixed with other information from different sites or groups, uh,
you know, and and you know it hasn't been particularly helpful.
It's my understanding that you've got a detective working full
(42:23):
time on this case. It's not like you put it
up on the shelf locked into the evidence room. Well,
it certainly isn't on the shelf. It certainly isn't anything
that we consider closed or or uh you know, not
actively being investigated. But but no, actually he spends one
to two days a week on it. Currently. There are
cases that that we look at all the time that
(42:45):
take ten or fifteen years and then something happened, something breaks.
This could be one of those that you guys are
working one or two days a week for for a
decade on. I mean you actually foresee that happening. Well,
I hope, I hope not. But if that's what it's
it's required, that's what we'll do. You know, nobody here
is is anywhere near throwing in the town for you know,
(43:06):
by any stretch. You know, we want to bring some
answers to the Missy's family. You know, if there's any
work to be done, we'll do that work. And until
it's done. You know, I was touched recently when I
read in your local newspaper that Missy's daughter raised some
money at an auction of a prized hog and wanted
(43:26):
to donate the money to your department to pay for
the investigation. That's how interested and concerned she was with it.
But that that's not necessary, is that? I mean, you
guys have plenty of resources. Yeah, you're correct, and you know,
what a what a cool story that was, and I
think it it says a lot about the community down
here that that Missy was from, you know, and also
(43:48):
how how well she raised her daughters, of course, but no,
as heartfelt as that was, um, it's it's simply wasn't necessary.
There haven't been any aspects of this case that we're limited,
you know, based on any kind of financial restrictions. So
I think, you know, we're hopeful that she'll find another
meaningful way to use that money, and I'm sure she will.
(44:09):
The video that you released inside the church, and then
there's the video of the gun store nearby. We've seen that.
But is there any other evidence or video that maybe
at some point you think you might want to make
public that you've been keeping secret that might spur some
tips and actually help resolve this case. Or have we
(44:30):
pretty much seen everything that you're going to show us
before there's an arrest. I'm confident that what has been
shared is likely to be all that shared. Obviously, just
like you indicated, you know, we we don't show our
full hand. UM. You know, be an irresponsible way to
investigate any kind of crime if we did that. UM,
I can tell you this that if if there was
(44:52):
any bit of information we thought would be helpful to release,
we would have released it long ago. What has been withheld? Uh,
there's either some that that has been a strategic investigative
type decision or has just been done in um in
good taste. There's there's a killer out there, possibly still
living in your community or passing through your community that
(45:13):
that's got to be a major concern for your department. Yeah, absolutely,
and I'm you know, I'm sure it's a major concern
for for people in our community. I'm you know, to
this day, when folks from this area or from our
town of mid Lothian, you know, see somebody with a
particular gait, I have no doubt that they were you know,
(45:35):
they immediately see the image of that person on video. Um.
You know, we continue to the state to receive those
types of tips. UM. I know that there will be
some amount of unrest until this case is solved. UM,
and you know so, so we'll keep doing the work
that it requires to do that. It has been two
years as the murder of Missy Beavers and still no justice.
(46:00):
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Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph Channel
one two. A little girl, just eleven years old goes
to spend the night party with her little best friend
girl just about a block and a half from home.
She's walking home the next morning to her family home,
(00:30):
to her mom and dad, and goes catty corner. She
cut instead of going all the way to the corner
and turning right, she cuts across the lot of a
local car wash and she is never seen alive again.
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
(00:51):
being with us. In a bizarre and very upsetting turn
of events, the murderer the man that approached eleven year
old Carly in that car wash parking lot and takes
her away, brutally rapes, beats and kills her. Her body
(01:17):
is found half naked, naked from the waist down, she's
wearing one sock, and her body has been thrown into
a wooded area behind a local church. He may very
well walk free. Why because appellate courts have ruled that
when a jury in Florida sentenced him to the death
(01:39):
penalty and attended to vote, that wasn't good enough. They
had found unanimously that he was guilty in Carly's murder,
but two people held out on the death penalty, ten
voted for it, and he was sentenced to death. He's
been languishing on death row all this time, writing dozens
of appeals that have all been turned down, until finally
(02:00):
he strikes pay dirt with me an all star panel
first and foremost founder of Class Kids Foundation, Mark Class
tireless advocate for crime victims after his daughter Polly was
kidnapped and murdered many years ago. Meridith Sincelo joining us
(02:22):
on the scene. W f l A. Brian Russell, host
of investigation Discoveries, hit show Fatal Vows and high profile
defense attorney out of California. Brian Claypool, who has practiced
often in the Florida justice system, out to Meridith Sinceulo
w f l A. The day that Curly goes missing,
(02:46):
the day that she is assaulted, beaten, and murdered, I
don't have to do a lot of digging because it's
caught on camera. It is caught on video as we
see her killer. UH guy with a long criminal history,
Joseph Smith, then thirty seven years old. UM he had
(03:07):
been arrested many times, convicted many times. An unemployed car
mechanic drug user currently had just had a violation of
his probation and was released just in time to abduct Carly.
He's seen on camera taking her, taking her by the arm,
(03:27):
and taking her out of the parking lot. So what happened.
How was her body found? Well, her body was found
behind a church area. As you've mentioned, she was mostly
nude as she had been strangled with some type of cord. UM.
There was obvious signs that she had tried to defend
(03:47):
herself UM but was not able to UM. There was
signs of a sexual assault UM and uh at first,
Joseph snitch just want to to confess to this. But
they were able to find her little body UM about
five days after she went missing. And as you've mentioned
(04:10):
that now famous surveillance tape, really it's just so sad
to look back at it. In fact, revisited it today
just to take another look. And and you see those
last moments where that man, Joseph Smith approached Carly and
appeared to have a conversation with her and then grabbed
her hand and led her away. And that's the last
(04:31):
time that she was seeing passed a chain link fence
in a wooded area behind a local church. Investigators find
eleven year old Carly. It was early on Friday, but
hours later cops charge Joe P. Smith, a thirty seven
(04:51):
year old auto mechanic with a long criminal record, with
first degree murder and kidnapping, and vowed that day that
they will se seek the death penalty. Tips were phoned
into investigators by people who recognized him from the surveillance video.
That video had caught Carly's actual abduction behind the car
(05:12):
wash on Sunday. As meredithince Hulo just told you, at first,
he refuses to talk, but he confided in somebody, and
that somebody led police to the body just three miles
from the car wash. How she was tortured, how she
was actually killed remained a mystery for quite some time.
(05:37):
She lived a short distance away from the sleepover with
me Mark, Class of Class Kids Foundation, Mark, Polly, your
daughter was having a sleepover the night that she went missing,
but in her mom's home. Right. Yes, this, this whole
conversation is making me numb. If anybody on the face
(05:58):
of the earth deserves the death penalty, it would be
a revetivious of recitivious violent offender that that abducts and
tortures and murders a tiny little girl. And I think
the lesson here that we all have to understand is
that it doesn't matter how well prepared children are there
(06:18):
there they've they've got no chance against a determined predator.
And that's exactly what we see in this situation. She
didn't want to go with him, there's no question about that.
But he had his way. He was determined, and the
idea that he may be getting off of death row,
or that he has gotten off of death row and
needs to have another hearing, is a travesty of justice.
(06:41):
It was about six fifteen PM that Sunday evening, still
daylight hours. Very I mean, if you see the video,
it looks like it's a high noon. It was that
Sunday afternoon. She's leaving her little friend's house after a sleepover,
hited for home less than a mile away, officials. Police
say a security camera behind the car wash spots a
(07:06):
yellow Buick station wagon driven into the parking lot just
three minutes before Carly is kidnapped. Obviously, Smith saw Carly
walking home through the parking lot and pulled his vehicle
to the back to conceal what he was doing to
approach Carly. But then at six that camera catches him
(07:30):
approaching Carly, grabbing her by the wrist, and leading her away.
That video was played over and over and over, and
the nation's eyes turned towards the search for Carly Brucia.
I remember so well her dad, Joe, thanking investigators and
(07:51):
calling on the governor to investigate whether judges went too
easy on dealing with Smith and all of his previous arrests.
I agree with her father to Brian Claypool, you're the
expert defense attorney. Why was this guy let out over
(08:12):
and over and over again only to murder Carly and
now he's got a new hearing? Well, Nancy, to me,
I think the bigger question is how is it that
he gets sentenced to death and then the court reverses
that and now gives him a resentencing hearing. Why is
that a bigger question to you? Because why is it
(08:34):
a bigger question to you than a repeat offender killing
a little girl? Let's talk about that Florida. Florida prison
systems are saturated, much like California prison systems, So you
get these prisoners in there, and they and they let
him out early. We've heard this and seen this time
after time, so you're right, this case, this tragic case.
(08:56):
And by the way, I have an eleven year old
daughter as well, so this tem to me. But again,
this is also about a systemic failure within our prison systems.
And that's all I can tell you about that. I mean,
I don't know what more we can do. But a
jury finds him guilty, there are no trial errors. He's
had dozens of appeals and finally he hits paid dirt
(09:18):
when an appellate court sitting in there Ivory Tower says, oh,
you know the law that after you've been found guilty
of murdered with aggravating circumstances, which are you kill more
than one person, you kill a child, it's a murder
for hire, it's a torture. It's in the commission of
another felonies such as rape. I know he's found guilty
(09:41):
of that, but you know what, that was unanimous. But
when they vote attend to do for the death penalty,
I don't like that. So I'm gonna order a whole
new hearing on the death penalty. This guy is loving it,
isn't it true? Meridisin culo, He's filed dozens of appeals
on all kind of wacky grounds. Fine, only he gets
some judge to go along with him. Yeah. Absolutely, he
(10:04):
has tried multiple times to appeal this. But it was
actually because of a Florida Supreme Court ruling that Smith
is going to be re sentent um. And that's because
in his case, it was a tend to tend to
to um as far as the jury goes, and because
the judge was the one that actually made that decision
(10:27):
that he would get the death penalty, that sentencing phase
is now going to be retried because it's been determined
that that actually is a violation of the sixth Amendments.
So that's why we're going to see um this new
penalty phase. Nancy, Nancy, can I make one point on that? Sure,
(10:47):
this is really interesting, and this is where I think
there was a major flaw. Even though this Supreme Court case,
the Hearst case, came down and said you needed unanimous
vote for death death sentence under the sixth Amendment. I
read the opinion and here here's an interesting point. The
the the the the Florida Supreme Court was analyzing this
(11:11):
from a standpoint of that they still were going to
enforce this death penalty if there was an if the
prosecutor could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the two
jurors who who held out on the death penalty, that
that was harmless air. So, in other words, had the
trial judge developed a more copious record of what those
(11:33):
two jurors didn't agree on, for example, where they just
hung up on a mitigating factor and one aggravating factor,
if it was something that was truly harmless, the Florida
Supreme Court was still going to allow Smith to be
sentenced to death. But that but since there was no
written record of what these two holdout jurors were hung
(11:54):
up on, the Florida Supreme Court was the handcuffed You
know what to you, Mark class, this is how more
to you, more than to anyone what he had to say,
and all that legal mumbo jumbo he just spouted out, Well,
legal mumbo jumbo always seems to serve these killers, you know,
it always seems to play in their favor. Carly isn't
(12:16):
even a player in this thing anymore. She's nothing more
than the currency that that drove us to this place,
and you know, here, here's the thing. And we just
had this in a case here in California, and it
was a death penalty case. And once it came to
the penalty phase, one juror held out, one juror told
the other jurors that there was no way on earth
(12:37):
they would that they would ever, that they would ever
sentence anybody to death. So it was a ringer. It
was somebody who lied to get into that position, to
spare this piece of garbage. And it's difficult, it's so
difficult to get these guys on death row where they
absolutely deserve to be in the beginning. But then there
are always there's always seems to be a way out. Um,
(13:00):
it's it's preposterous. Again. This whole death penalty thing, this
whole death sentenced thing in this country has become kind
of a joke because of the abolitionist. You know, and
take a listen to this guy, the thirty seven then
thirty seven year old white male car mechanic, unemployed. Listen.
(13:20):
His arrest record includes a violent attack and numerous drugs charges.
In fact, he wants to beat a woman in the
face with a motorcycle helmet, just beat her mercilessly in
the face. What did you do for that aggravated assault?
He did about sixty days behind bars. Then he violates probation.
(13:43):
What happens? Then he gets straight out of jail. It
happens over and over and over with this guy, and
the judge blames probation department. The probation department blames the judge.
The judge start whining that it's not his fault that
he just followed the law, and blames the probation department.
(14:06):
It was Judge Harry Rapkin. So long story short, he
violated probation twice in one year, but probation officers never
recommended jail time. He was never arrested, so he's out
walking free. It happens upon Carly Brescia, you know, to
Brian Russell, the host of the hit show on Investigation Discovery,
(14:30):
fatal vows please weigh in. Okay, So, Nancy, we hear
a lot of talk lately, and I think we heard
just a little bit of it today about mass incarceration.
We have our jails are too crowded, We've got too
many people locked up. Well, you know what, when we
have a lot of people doing a lot of destructive stuff.
(14:51):
Then I actually like a lot of jails with a
lot of people in him for a lot of years.
We have to understand that the number one duty of
government is to protect the citizens from physical attack from
enemies other places in the world and from people right
here at home. The justice system and the correction system,
(15:14):
although I don't think we correct anybody very often. It's
it's more the public safety system that the segregation system
for dangerous people from the rest of us. That is
really just national defense at the at the domestic level,
and there's nothing more important for the government to do.
So you know, whatever it cost, what is the cost
of not doing it. It's stuff like this happening to
(15:36):
innocent Americans and so that the cuts have to come elsewhere.
This is not the place to skimp as a society.
If we ran the system the way that we should,
this guy never would have had the opportunity to kill
Carly Brussia. And then the second thing I would say
is if we ran the prison system the way that
(15:58):
we should, spending the rest of his life in it
should actually be worse than basically painless little injection and
he goes to sleep and never wakes up. But because
we supply air conditioning and cable television and workout rooms
and all this stuff is why it's not. And that's nuts.
Were one of the few societies in the world that
(16:20):
hasn't figured out you want prison to be a place
that nobody ever wants to be or go back to,
you know, to Meritus is Hulo w f l A.
That evening that Sunday when she was walking home that afternoon,
she had spent the night, as I said, at her
friend's house, and the little girl's mother said Carly wanted
to walk home and that she had permission from her mom.
(16:42):
So Carly leaves and the other mom just for some reason,
called Carly's mom and found out Carly was wrong. She
got it wrong. She didn't have permission to walk home.
So Carly's stepdad, Steve Canceler, immediately goes to get her
because they know she's walking home. And it was almost
immediate she was gone, right, I believe it was within
(17:05):
thirty minutes. I mean, it was just a matter of moments. Um.
But as Mr Klashes said, um, you know, it only
takes that short period of time, you know, just walking
a couple of blocks. But you know, that that the
mother of the little girl that Carly was staying with,
just to her something wasn't right. You know, she made
(17:28):
that decision to call Carly's parents just to make sure
it was okay, um, for Carly to make that walk.
And as soon as they realized no, she shouldn't be
doing this, they were out there, they were looking, but
you know, she was already gone. Um. It was a
span of I think six minutes from when Joseph's miss
Carr was spotted pulling up to that car wash and
(17:50):
then the time when he was seen leading Carly away.
So just in that six minute span of time she disappears. Um.
And you know, it's it's such a short time frame there,
but it only takes moments. And unfortunately that's what happened here.
And and that video hit the air waves and people,
(18:12):
you know, recognize the cars, some people even recognize Mr Smith.
But you know, but it was already too late for Carly.
In just a matter of moments, Carly was gone. The
guy is convicted and sentenced to death row, but now
a stunning about turn, an appellate court has ruled the
(18:34):
death penalty in his case is thrown out, and there
may very well be not only any hearing, but him
escaping his sentence. Take a listen to Carly's father, Joe Brucia,
after he learns about this appellate decision. It's one of
the things. It's it's it's favoring the criminals over the
(18:55):
the innocent victims. Are Is it just more ways attorneys
to make bullible hours, because it certainly doesn't make any sense.
I mean, it's it's the thing that comes to my mind.
Take a listen to Carly's mom before she passed away.
I was one of the most precious things to me
in my life because of an animal, a disgusting, perverted animal.
(19:21):
If I could speak to him, I'd like to know
why he chose my butter and why he had to
kill her. And I'm sure she let him know that
she was only eleven years old. How could he go
through with it? Even the jury four person, Ron Cruzel,
who was the jury four person on that Joseph Smith
murder trial, speaks out there was no question that Joe
(19:44):
Smith was guilty, no question at all. You had to
see the pictures. You had to realize the life that
was taken and how it was taken. I will use
the word us evil. Joe Smith will die. Whether he
(20:06):
dies in prison or whether he dies on the table
with I VS in his arm, He's going to die,
and at that point he'll be faced with what he's
done in his life, just like we are. The disappointment
(20:28):
running deep in this case. For those of you just
joining us, eleven year old Curly Brucia is kidnapped, beaten,
brutally raped, and found seeming new dumped in woods behind
a local church in Florida. A man on death row
(20:48):
for the murder of eleven year old Curly has now
finally one an appeal. Now, let me understand something to
Brian Claypool, lawyer joining US, I profile lawyer out of California. Brian,
when we say a reman on the sentencing, they're only
going to retry the penalty phase. The guilt innocence phase
(21:12):
remains intact. They're gonna retry the sentencing phase. Correct, Nancy,
great question, But here's the problem with that. How in
the world are you going to convince twelve jurors to
give this bug a death sense Unless you have to
put on all the evidence of how horrible the crime was,
(21:33):
you can't get around putting on the liability phase to
get this this this death sentence that you want, so
talk about a way, you know, all the taxpayer money.
I mean, like Mark was saying, sometimes the laws just
talk comport with public sentiment, common sense. I mean, they're
gonna have to spend a lot of money and a
lot of time. They're they're gonna have to go into
(21:54):
the details of the crime to get the jury aroused
enough to get this guy at death sense, don't you say, well,
you know what, you know what Mark class, bring it on.
I mean, if I was prostituting tastes fine, I'd bring
it all back on and get another death penalty sentence
on this guy. You do not take an eleven year
old little girl walking home a few blocks, kidnap her,
(22:19):
beat her at rape her, and murder her and then
you escape the death penalty. You do you do? You
go after if you take it, and you do everything
you can to make sure the jury understands who this
guy is and what he did so that they will
again vote for him to have the death penalty. This
is a situation where where justice failed this little girl
(22:43):
and most certainly has failed her father. Can you even
imagine what that man is going through, realizing who this
guy is and what he's done, and all of a sudden,
the state of Florida says, well, yeah, but we're going
to take him off a death row. Mark, you raised
a good point. You raise a good point. You know,
their problems with their justice systems, And Nancy mentioned like
these probation officers that let him sixty days for aggravating assault.
(23:07):
The problem we have is immunity. There's there's their civil
immunity to all these probation officers, all the law enforcement investigating,
all the judges who make these horrible decisions that lead
to the death of children. They all have immunity in
the civil system. So maybe it's time to revoke that.
Oh that drives me crazy. Brian Claypool and you know
(23:29):
Brian Russell joining me, host of the hit investigation discovery
show Fatal Vows. We've talked about this so many times
when de Facts Department, Family Children's Services CPS fails to
follow up on cases and children end up dead. Same
thing here. I think they should all be prosecuted like
these probation officers. They let killers slip through the cracks.
(23:50):
Brian Well, I agree with that, but I think that
before it gets to that point, we as a society
have got to take away the discretion that not only
these people have, but also our judges to give. So
I don't understand. I'm a psychologist, and I still don't
understand the sympathy that people have in this society for
(24:15):
people who do wantingly, uh consciously destructive stuff to other people.
But we've for whatever reason, they do, and they're making
it into positions like judge ships and these probation officer
roles where they have the ability to act out their
sympathy by letting these people back loose on the rest
of us. We've got to we have got to take
(24:36):
that discretion away with stiffer mandatory minimums for more stuff.
And also another thing we need to do is get
rid of concurrent sentencing. It is absolutely ridiculous that somebody
can commit three felonies and end up being sentenced for
each one of them concurrently. So basically you get two
(24:57):
felonies free. You know, commit one felony, get two felonies
for It's like having a sale at a resale. It's
like three for one. It's like three for one at
a store. Um, guys, what what makes it even worse
as it all plays out on camera? When this monster
killer caught on camera snatching a little girl before raping
(25:20):
and murdering her, and now he may dodge the death penalty.
Long story short, He's caught on closed circuit TV. It
captures the moment that a thirty seven year old mechanic
steals Curly Brucia. Her battered little body is found in
wooded area behind a church. Sarah Soda, Florida. This guy
(25:45):
has filed so many appeals they've all fallen on deaf
ears until now, and he has been handed a lifeline
thanks to an appellate court meridor Sinceulo w f l A.
Another issue is this, This decision by this appellate court
is years after Curly's killer was sentenced, but they're applying
(26:07):
the decision retroactively. Does that mean everybody on the death
row is going to get a nice sentencing hearing a
new trial. Well, so, what we know is that in
sixteen that the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that our
best sentence in system here in Florida violated that six
Amendment of course, which requires that a jury, not a judge,
(26:29):
imposed a death sentence so in looking at this case,
it did determine that that this particular case didn't hold up,
and so that's why his sentence of death was was
remanded for a new penalty phase. Now. I don't know
(26:50):
how many cases at this point have been put under
this same microscope, but it is very possible that we
are going to see some of the other high profile
cases um just to have to go through this all
over again, because you know, we're looking at um, what
I think, twelve years now, and he was sentenced in
(27:11):
two thousand six, so you know, twelve years he's been
sitting on death row and now we're going to be
be going through this again. So I definitely think that
this is something that we will see more cases coming
to this. Unfortunately, well, the mother, Carly's mother passed away
(27:34):
just a month after hearing about the possibility of the
killers release her daughter's killers release. Carly's mother has passed away,
leaving behind just her father to continue the fight for
justice on behalf of his daughter, his eleven year old
girl that was murdered. I can still remember when Carly
(27:58):
was just missing, before we had the awful knees. Listen,
we have pound Carly and the person responsible for her murder.
This follows us to current one of the charges. The
defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree has
charged Nancy. The jury that convicted Joseph Smith heard recordings
of phone calls the killer made from jail to his family,
(28:20):
including this one with his mother. The thing that you
could do is to try and explain it with an accident.
I know that, Joe. You don't think that the case
of Carly's killer is heading back to court in a
(28:41):
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of now. We had two Texas in the case of
a beautiful young mom of two girls who lives with
the girls and her husband. She's a supermom. She gets
(29:24):
up at like three o'clock every morning and goes to
teach a gladiator aerobics class in the local church before
she gets back home and makes the breakfasts and the
launches and gets everybody to school and does all of that.
She gets to church and somehow ends up bludgeoned and
(29:47):
stabbed dead. And in the wake of her murder, surveillance
footage emerges. Surveillance footage capturing catching an unknown person breaking
into that creek side Church of Christ and creeping around
wearing decked out in full police swat gear. Now I
(30:14):
believe the swat gear is cobbled together because it looks
like a motorcycle helmet and motorcycle boots and other items
bought here and there to resemble a swat outfit. Wandering
around the church, never steals anything but waiting for Missy
(30:34):
Beavers to arrive. And when Missy does arrive, she is
bludgeoned and stabbed dead. No theft, no sex attack, nothing
taken from Missy, nothing taken from the church, and the
killer vanishes with me. Dave mac on the story Dave
(31:00):
act the murder of Missy Beavers still unsolved. You know,
you'd think with surveillance video you could identify the person,
but their face was covered. Dave there, you know, you
pointed out that it looked like it was a cobble
together outfit, that it wasn't something generally speaking that we're
used to seeing in terms of tactical gear. But the
other part about this is that the person in the
(31:22):
gear was well. First of all, he had a hammer,
you know that that's not the most common tactical gear.
On top of that, he had a very distinctive gait.
He had a very distinctive walk. And I'm wondering as
they went live with that video almost immediately after this happened,
and nobody's identifying who the person is that walks like that.
(31:43):
It's a distinctive struct you know, of course says she's
married with children. You've got this killer unidentified in the video.
Clearly that's who murdered Missy. All eyes turned on the husband,
as they always do when a wife is killed. You
always look at the husband first. Joining me. Brian Russell,
(32:05):
the host of investigation discoveries hit show Fatal Vows. Brian
when the search warrants were later revealed they let the
cat of the bag. That one, at least one of
the married people involved, husband and wife have been having
an affair. Okay, that cat was out of the bag
(32:26):
and that made the scrutiny on the husband even more intense.
But the reality, yes, he was on a fishing trip
several states away with eyewitness alibis at the time Missy
was murdered. A couple of things, Statistically speaking, You're absolutely right.
It's much more like you're much more likely if you're
going to be murdered, to be murdered by somebody you know,
someone close to you, than you are by a stranger.
(32:47):
The second thing is, I can tell you from six
years of Fatal Vows that the number one reason people
end up on our show is because of infidelity in
the marriage. Really that over money, yes, money being number two.
And the third thing is probably number three is probably
uh strife around uh, you know, trying to merge families
and have step kids and all of that kind of stuff.
(33:09):
Joining me right now, high profile lawyer out of the
California jurisdiction, Brian Claypool. Brian, the reality is one of
my best friends is a female defense lawyer, criminal defense.
She specializes in dope. Okay, she'll handle the occasional divorce case.
She's told me a million times, Nancy, I would rather
defend a killer at trial than represents somebody in a
(33:34):
divorce because the other side is liable to drive by
my house and shoot me through the living room window.
For Pete's sake. Divorces they're just so acrimonious and bitter
that that that they're unfathomable the anger that comes up
during divorces or marital discord. So naturally you look at
(33:55):
the husband. I think it's a good pointing if you
look at I mean, there wasn't a murder in the
Delhia depolite occasion me. You know, I conducted two trials
tru Dahlia, and at the center of that that that
case and and the alleged murder, for higher was what
you're talking about, marital discord, the the the the the
(34:15):
the acrimony that existed in that marriage that led to
desperation and helplessness. And and I think that's that's what
we're talking about here as well. And and and that
probably is the is the angle that law enforcement has
to really focus on this investigation. We were talking about
the brutal murder of a young, beautiful mom of two girls,
(34:41):
Missy Beavers. So question to you, Dave Mac, syndicated talk
show host joining us and investigative reporter on this story. Dave,
It's amazing to me that even now no one has
been taken into custody for questioning nothing. You know, Nan
see that. You know, there's a no statute of limitations
(35:02):
when it comes to murder, So they've got to they've
got to cross their teas into aut their eyes. But
one of the things that I was looking at, and
all of this going back to the made up, the
put together tactical gear, the hammer as a murder weapon,
you've got um online flirtation by Missy by the way,
and a husband who has some kind of ironclad alibi. Well,
(35:25):
what was the bloody shirt that his father had two
days later trying to get cleaned that he claims was
from breaking up a dog fight. It just seems awfully
odd that somebody that close to a very bloody murder
would have a T shirt covered in blood trying to
get it clean, and the police pulling the search warrant
to go get it. Well, according to the crime lab
(35:46):
analyst to Alan Deep, didn't it turn out to be
true that he had broken up a dog fight right there?
That was a rabbit hole that didn't pan out as
a really well I don't know if I've referred to
as a rabbit hole. That usually referred to thing that
doesn't is irrelevant, doesn't make any sense. I mean, you
got a murder case like Dave Max talking about, where
there's a ton of blood at the scene and then
(36:08):
the father in law jumps up with a bloody shirt
he tries to get cleaned. I would absolutely have investigated
that if I were the police, but it turned out
it had nothing to do with the case, had nothing
to do with it. They were able to rule that out.
I've been corresponding, as you know, with Brandon Beaver's the husband,
for some time, and we've reported some of this, of course,
(36:29):
some of his emails to us. And let me point
out two things that are really interesting about this. He
suggested in one email back in December that his daughters
don't really want the person arrested and apprehended. Remember that
email he sent to us. He says the children are
not terribly fond of apprehending this person. They don't want
(36:50):
to revisit those emotions. They've told me this, But let
me update you on that the oldest daughter, this is
a rural area. One of her hobbies is to raise hogs,
you know, four age kind of thing. You did that.
I don't know if you ever had a hog, but
I did not have a hog. Um. I focused on
learning to can vegetables and fruits, make jams and jellies,
(37:13):
an interior design, as well as forestry and landscaping and
public speaking. But thank you for suggesting that I raise pigs.
Go ahead place, Well maybe you should have, because it
was pretty profitable for her. She sold her prize hog
at auction just recently for fifteen thousand dollars. The reason
(37:37):
that it went so high was the community came out
and up the bid because she wanted that money to
go to the department, the police department, to help investigate,
and she had an earmark. But then the police chief said,
you know, we really don't need this, We're well funded,
so she ended up giving it to special needs kins.
(37:57):
My point being that that oldest daughter is so anxious
to find the killer of her mom that she did that,
And I think that speaks a lot. Guys. Just recently
we spoke with the assistant police chief there in Middle
Opian assistant chief of police, Kevin Johnson. Take a listen
to this. So the most recent activity, UM involves the
(38:21):
assignment of a new detective, and that was something that
was done as a matter of just a personnel move UM,
not not particularly related to this investigation. But nonetheless, what
the new investigator is doing is really spending a lot
of time entrenching himself in the investigation and and and
(38:42):
pouring over the information that's been collected, such as interviews, statements,
reports from officers, and um, you know, the follow up
information from some of the tips received. So just trying
to become familiar with the case. Is there any new
information to share with us as far as auspects, persons
of interest, or anything in the case? No, sir, No, sir,
(39:04):
Unfortunately there is not. It's been two years and this
is one of the more remarkable cases I've ever seen.
With all this video of the crime scene at the
time or thereabouts at the time, it's got to be
frustrating that you've got so much evidence yet no suspects,
no persons of interest. Yeah. Absolutely, it's frustrating, you know,
obviously most frustrating for the family, I'm sure, frustrating for
(39:27):
our community. Uh, and of course frustrating for the police
officers involved in the investigation. You know that we don't
we have a lot of evidence we have don't have
the right evidence. Um, you know, and I've said before,
you know, police police evidence rooms are full of videos
and DVDs of video of unknown people committing crimes, and
(39:49):
it's really frustrating. I think the public perception is that
when you have a video, and you have a personal video,
you know that you know, in short order you can
figure out who that person is. The fact is that
this person went to great links to conceal their identity.
And you know, other than the unusual gait and some
some observations about the stature, um you know, there there's
(40:11):
not even much skin showing, you know, So what we
can say for sure just has more to do with
skin tone than than than other important details that would
lead us to an identification. I get these emails and
these messages from people who think that there are investigators,
these web sleuths. If you will, I know you got
them too. Has that been helpful? Do you think or
(40:33):
is it just just background noise. I will tell you
that a lot of the information that we receive is
is a combination of speculation, uninformed inferences and assumptions. Um.
You know. Early on in the investigation, there was a
particular photo that circulated. UM Where it originated and who
(40:57):
made it? I couldn't tell you. It certainly didn't from
the police department. Um. But a lot of people saw
that and it it appeared to be compelling to them,
and and they took it, uh you know, as as
an official piece of evidence. Um you know. And when
you combine you know, tips of that nature with with
(41:17):
you know, five or five or six seven other tips,
uh of dubious origin, if you will, uh you know,
it's it's easy to understand why a person would combine
those together into um, you know, a theory that makes
sense to them, and believe that it has some viability
and feel compelled to award it to the police. In
(41:37):
each instance that we've we've dug through that information, there
have had there have been some small helpful bits of information,
but by and large, unfortunately, uh, the bulk of it
has not been particularly helpful. UM. Now I say that
not wanting to discourage anybody from from from forwarding any
information or reaching out to us. Um, you know, because
(42:00):
it's our job to to to sift through that and
determine it's it's it's credibility, you know. So, um, I
certainly don't want to discourage that. But but buying large
that you know a lot of information has just been
mixed with other information from different sites or groups, uh,
you know, and and you know it hasn't been particularly helpful.
It's my understanding that you've got a detective working full
(42:23):
time on this case. It's not like you put it
up on the shelf locked into the evidence room. Well,
it certainly isn't on the shelf. It certainly isn't anything
that we consider closed or or uh you know, not
actively being investigated. But but no, actually he spends one
to two days a week on it. Currently. There are
cases that that we look at all the time that
(42:45):
take ten or fifteen years and then something happened, something breaks.
This could be one of those that you guys are
working one or two days a week for for a
decade on. I mean you actually foresee that happening. Well,
I hope, I hope not. But if that's what it's
it's required, that's what we'll do. You know, nobody here
is is anywhere near throwing in the town for you know,
(43:06):
by any stretch. You know, we want to bring some
answers to the Missy's family. You know, if there's any
work to be done, we'll do that work. And until
it's done. You know, I was touched recently when I
read in your local newspaper that Missy's daughter raised some
money at an auction of a prized hog and wanted
(43:26):
to donate the money to your department to pay for
the investigation. That's how interested and concerned she was with it.
But that that's not necessary, is that? I mean, you
guys have plenty of resources. Yeah, you're correct, and you know,
what a what a cool story that was, and I
think it it says a lot about the community down
here that that Missy was from, you know, and also
(43:48):
how how well she raised her daughters, of course, but no,
as heartfelt as that was, um, it's it's simply wasn't necessary.
There haven't been any aspects of this case that we're limited,
you know, based on any kind of financial restrictions. So
I think, you know, we're hopeful that she'll find another
meaningful way to use that money, and I'm sure she will.
(44:09):
The video that you released inside the church, and then
there's the video of the gun store nearby. We've seen that.
But is there any other evidence or video that maybe
at some point you think you might want to make
public that you've been keeping secret that might spur some
tips and actually help resolve this case. Or have we
(44:30):
pretty much seen everything that you're going to show us
before there's an arrest. I'm confident that what has been
shared is likely to be all that shared. Obviously, just
like you indicated, you know, we we don't show our
full hand. UM. You know, be an irresponsible way to
investigate any kind of crime if we did that. UM,
I can tell you this that if if there was
(44:52):
any bit of information we thought would be helpful to release,
we would have released it long ago. What has been withheld? Uh,
there's either some that that has been a strategic investigative
type decision or has just been done in um in
good taste. There's there's a killer out there, possibly still
living in your community or passing through your community that
(45:13):
that's got to be a major concern for your department. Yeah, absolutely,
and I'm you know, I'm sure it's a major concern
for for people in our community. I'm you know, to
this day, when folks from this area or from our
town of mid Lothian, you know, see somebody with a
particular gait, I have no doubt that they were you know,
(45:35):
they immediately see the image of that person on video. Um.
You know, we continue to the state to receive those
types of tips. UM. I know that there will be
some amount of unrest until this case is solved. UM,
and you know so, so we'll keep doing the work
that it requires to do that. It has been two
years as the murder of Missy Beavers and still no justice.
(46:00):
Nancy Grace Crime Stories signing off goodbye friend. If you're
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