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Here's some of our top stories this week:
Donna Adelson's children testify at her murder trial.
A man puts on his dead girlfriend’s wig and forces her boyfriend to wear her clothes and help dump her body in the Florida woods.
The desperate hunt for a beloved Michigan mom continues...Starla Goings disappeared without a trace, after scoring a legal victory in her divorce battle.
The father of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro said in a lengthy jailhouse interview denied prosecutors’ contention that the boy suffered long-term abuse before his presumed death and said his wife, who reported the infant missing, was innocent.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alert I Nancy Grace Breaking Crimes now. One of
the alleged masterminds of the contract killing a Florida State
University law professor, Dan Markel, is facing a jury. Jury
selection for Donna Adelson, accused of planning their murder of
her son in law, is complete. Opening statements done now.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
The evidence prosecutors depicted her as the matriarch mastermind behind
the brutal murder of the Florida State University law professor,
while her defense team portrayed her as a kind and
loving person. During their opening statements, the attorneys engaged in
extensive questioning and cross examination of several witnesses, including two
(00:43):
significant members of the Adelson family, Wendy and Robert. This
marked the first time Robert, the woman's son, has provided
testimony in the murder case. Having been estranged from his
family for several years. Robert disclosed that his last communication
with his mother was in twenty sixteen. Dan was fatally
(01:03):
shot at close range in twenty fourteen while in the
middle of a legal battle with his wife, Wendy Adelson,
over her desire to relocate with their two young sons
in Miami, where her parents lived as seventy five, Donna
Face's first degree murder charges, conspiracy, and solicitation in the
case that has garnered significant media attention in Tallahassee and
(01:27):
the US and resulted in the convictions of four others,
including her son, Charlie Adelson. Later in the afternoon, Wendy
Adelson took the stand once more, reiterating to the courtroom
that she had no involvement in the murder for hire
of her ex husband. However, during cross examination, Donna Adelson's
attorneys contended that Wendy may have had a deeper connection
(01:50):
to the murder than she disclosed. Assistant State Attorney Georgia
Kappelman continued to question Wendy, guiding the jury through the
timeline of events. I hired assassins at his Tallahassee residence.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Isn't it true that when you were interviewed by law enforcement?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
She said initially, was Danny's parents were going to think
that you're the one who.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Did it, right. I did say that.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Throughout Wendy's testimony, Donna, her mother, listened closely as the
proceedings unfolded. Wendy's account remained consistent with her previous testimonies.
In earlier trials. On the morning of the murder, Wendy
was awaiting a TV repairman, the same television that Charlie
had joked about being less expensive than hiring a hit man.
Wendy acknowledged her brother's tasteless joke, but Capelman pressed her further, saying,
(02:37):
but someone did hire a hit man. Yes, that happened,
Wendy confirmed. Continuing her cross examination, Capelman posed a direct question,
were you in any way involved in the plot to
kill your ex husband? No, Wendy replied, did you perhaps
know what was going to happen but not the specifics?
I did not know what was going to happen. I
(02:58):
did not know anything about it, Wendy asserted. The trial
continues against the mother in law, Donna Adelson the more
Time and Justice News after this.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I'm Drew Nelson. A man puts on a murdered woman's
clothes and wig and forces the victim's boyfriend to wear
her clothes too and help dump her body in the
Florida Woods. That's according to police testimony heard in court Monday.
Our TV news partners at Fox thirteen Tampa. We're in
the Hillsboro County court room for the bond hearing of
Arnaldo Sintron, aged forty two, who was arrested alongside his girlfriend,
(03:38):
thirty seven year old he Sells Santiago Bonilla. Both are
charged in the brutal stabbing death of Sindrone's girlfriend's cousin,
forty two year old heel Hira Valsbonia, better known as Joy.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
But given the nature and circumstances the offense, the vision
from law enforcement, the planning involved in this particular case,
in the overall risk of physical harm, and my concerns
about appearance, court taking a account her ties to the community,
I'm going.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
To set substantial bail in these cases.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
I do find that there she does pose a risk
of physical harm to the community, as well as a
risk of harm and intimidation to witnesses.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
In this case, Bania's boyfriend, Elga Davis the Second, told
deputies he saw Centron stab Joy in the neck and
her Riverview home after a fight about money and chores.
He said in court that Centron kept stabbing.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I'm sitting there and the next thing I hear like
someone get hid in the throat, and I did me that.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
That sound and then I try to go run over
there and like and then I see her on.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
F Davis and Centron then forced him to help clean
up the blood and move the body. He said he's
ell helped to calling Joy evil and saying quote, she
deserved this. Put on to find the word.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Stuffed, folded, pushed, how was she fits into the box?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
We stuffed her. They took the box with Joy's remains
to her car. Davis said Sentrone and Hezel threatened to
kill him and Joy's teenage son if he didn't help.
At one point, Sintrone dressed in one of Joy's wigs
and dresses. Davis said Sentron also forced him to wear
her clothes while they drove around to dump the evidence.
(05:16):
They met up with another man known only as Tarzan
and dumped Joy's body in a mangrove area of the
Whedon Island Preserve near the Gandy Bridge. Davis said he
later called his parents, then turned himself into deputies and
led them to the body. Sentrone faces charges of second
degree murder, moving a body in unapproved conditions, tampering with
a witness, and tampering with evidence. He's being held without bond.
(05:39):
His Hell is charged with accessory after the fact and
is being held on two hundred thousand dollars bond. The
investigation continues. I'm Jennifer Gould.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
The quiet charm of Unison, Michigan was shattered by an
unsettling disappearance that has left investigators with a chilling mystery
and a family clinging to hope. Starla Goings, a sixty
five year old mom and beloved bank teller, vanished from
her home back on August fifteenth, just days after a
(06:09):
crucial legal development in her divorce case. The unsettling detail
of her abandoned car, found on a lonely stretch of road,
has sent chalk waves through the community and ignited a
desperate multi agency search. Here's Alger County Sheriff Todd Brock.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
That's our focus.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Will exhaust every lead we have and do anything we
possibly can to bring her home safely to her family.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Goings, described by her daughter as quote unquote bubbly and
quote unquote easy to love, was last seen by her
estranged husband, Stephen Goings, around midnight after the couple attended
the Upstate Fair. For a woman known to be in
constant contact with her family, her sudden silence was a
blaring red flag. A welfare check on August seventheenth confirmed
(07:01):
their worst fears, Starla was gone. The Alger County Sheriff's
Office immediately launched a full scale missing person investigation, but
a key piece of the puzzle quickly emerged. Deputies found
Starla's vehicle on August seventeenth, abandoned at the intersection of
sixteen Mile Lake Road and M ninety four, just a
(07:22):
few miles from her house. The discovery offered few clues
to her whereabouts, sparking a methodical but frenzied search. K
nine units, aerial drones and ground teams from the Michigan
State Police, Marquette County Sheriff's Office, Michigan Department of Natural Resources,
and the US Forest Service are now combing the rugged terrain,
(07:45):
following every possible lead. The case has been further complicated
by court records. It was revealed that Starla had filed
for divorce from her husband in May, and just four
days before her disappearance, a stipulated in order to release
real estate sale proceeds was signed. While authorities have not
(08:05):
officially suggested foul play, these details have raised questions about
the nature of her disappearance. With no suspects named, and
no sign of the five foot four, one hundred and
sixty pound woman with short white hair and tattoos. A
community is left with one lingering question, what happened to
(08:26):
Starla Goings. The Alger County Sheriffs is asking residents to
please check game or outdoor cameras around the area where
her orange twenty nineteen Volkswagon tig One SUV was found
between four pm on Friday, August fifteenth and eight pm
on Sunday, August seventeenth, to see if anything looks out
(08:48):
of place. Her family is pleading with the public for help,
urging anyone with information to contact the Alger County Sheriff's
Office at nine zero six three eight seven seventy thirty.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I'm Sidney Sumner. In a lengthy jailhouse interview, the father
of seven month old Emmanuel Harrow denied prosecutor's contention that
the boy suffered long term abuse before his presumed death,
and said his wife, who reported the infant missing, was innocent.
Jake Harrow, thirty two, told a Southern California News Group
reporter that he has been completely cooperative with investigators, although
(09:25):
he declined to say whether he led them to the
Moreno Valley Badlands over the weekend, where he was seen
in a jailhouse jumpsuit as crews searched the area. Harrow
and forty one year old Rebecca Harrow were charged this
week with killing little Emmanuel and filing a false police report.
Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said that investigators believed
(09:46):
that Emmanuel was severely abused over a period of time.
Hestron added both parents would have been aware of that abuse.
Harrow insisted that allegation was not true at all, but
declined to say what role he may have played in
the little boy's disappearance. Prosecutors and investigators said that there
has been some level of cooperation from the parents, but
(10:07):
declined to provide details. Rebecca Harrow reported her son missing
on August fourteenth, claiming that someone she did not see
knocked her unconscious while she was changing Emmanuel's diaper and
took the boy. In dramatic and emotional interviews after the
reported disappearance, she begged for help finding her son, but
investigators soon found inconsistencies in her stories, and a week later,
(10:30):
the parents were arrested. Formal murder charges were filed this week.
In his jailhouse interview, Jake Harrow also denied prosecutor's version
of his previous conviction for child abuse. He claimed that
he accidentally dropped his newborn daughter on a sink divider
while bathing her. She didn't look injured, he said, although
she is now left blind with three percent brain function
(10:52):
from her severe injuries, which included fresh and healing rib fractures,
a fractured skull, and a leg fracture. And his then
wife pleaded guilty and he was sentenced to one hundred
and eighty days in a work release program with a
suspended prison sentence, and was ordered to attend a child
abuse or treatment program. Haro said, somehow they magically convinced
(11:14):
me to take this plea deal. I was sick of court.
The judge knows I didn't do it. They just railroaded me.
I was the fall guy. District Attorney Hestern said that
there was no plea deal. Instead, Haro threw himself on
the mercy of the court and pled guilty in open
court to avoid trial. The judge then gave him a
big break with the sentence over prosecutor's strenuous objections. The
(11:37):
DA called it an outrageous error in judgment for this judge,
commenting mister Harrow should have been in prison at the
time that this crime happened. Haro declined to provide any
details about the current case, citing advice from his lawyer.
Harro said, I want to talk about it, but I can't.
I was told don't do no press. Rebecca Harrow, too
(11:58):
appears to be ignoring legal advice, speaking to a reporter
from jail over the weekend and sticking solidly to her
kidnapping story. Rebecca's husband says she is innocent. The media
is killing her. She is a beautiful woman. She loves
her children. The Riverside Sheriff's Department has declined to comment
about Harrow's interview, saying the investigation is very active and
(12:20):
will be for quite some time. For the latest crime
and justice news, be sure to follow the Crime Alert
hourly update on your favorite podcast app with this Crime Alert.
I'm Sydney Sumner.
Crime Alert I Nancy Grace Breaking Crimes now. One of
the alleged masterminds of the contract killing a Florida State
University law professor, Dan Markel, is facing a jury. Jury
selection for Donna Adelson, accused of planning their murder of
her son in law, is complete. Opening statements done now.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
The evidence prosecutors depicted her as the matriarch mastermind behind
the brutal murder of the Florida State University law professor,
while her defense team portrayed her as a kind and
loving person. During their opening statements, the attorneys engaged in
extensive questioning and cross examination of several witnesses, including two
(00:43):
significant members of the Adelson family, Wendy and Robert. This
marked the first time Robert, the woman's son, has provided
testimony in the murder case. Having been estranged from his
family for several years. Robert disclosed that his last communication
with his mother was in twenty sixteen. Dan was fatally
(01:03):
shot at close range in twenty fourteen while in the
middle of a legal battle with his wife, Wendy Adelson,
over her desire to relocate with their two young sons
in Miami, where her parents lived as seventy five, Donna
Face's first degree murder charges, conspiracy, and solicitation in the
case that has garnered significant media attention in Tallahassee and
(01:27):
the US and resulted in the convictions of four others,
including her son, Charlie Adelson. Later in the afternoon, Wendy
Adelson took the stand once more, reiterating to the courtroom
that she had no involvement in the murder for hire
of her ex husband. However, during cross examination, Donna Adelson's
attorneys contended that Wendy may have had a deeper connection
(01:50):
to the murder than she disclosed. Assistant State Attorney Georgia
Kappelman continued to question Wendy, guiding the jury through the
timeline of events. I hired assassins at his Tallahassee residence.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Isn't it true that when you were interviewed by law enforcement?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
She said initially, was Danny's parents were going to think
that you're the one who.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Did it, right. I did say that.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Throughout Wendy's testimony, Donna, her mother, listened closely as the
proceedings unfolded. Wendy's account remained consistent with her previous testimonies.
In earlier trials. On the morning of the murder, Wendy
was awaiting a TV repairman, the same television that Charlie
had joked about being less expensive than hiring a hit man.
Wendy acknowledged her brother's tasteless joke, but Capelman pressed her further, saying,
(02:37):
but someone did hire a hit man. Yes, that happened,
Wendy confirmed. Continuing her cross examination, Capelman posed a direct question,
were you in any way involved in the plot to
kill your ex husband? No, Wendy replied, did you perhaps
know what was going to happen but not the specifics?
I did not know what was going to happen. I
(02:58):
did not know anything about it, Wendy asserted. The trial
continues against the mother in law, Donna Adelson the more
Time and Justice News after this.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I'm Drew Nelson. A man puts on a murdered woman's
clothes and wig and forces the victim's boyfriend to wear
her clothes too and help dump her body in the
Florida Woods. That's according to police testimony heard in court Monday.
Our TV news partners at Fox thirteen Tampa. We're in
the Hillsboro County court room for the bond hearing of
Arnaldo Sintron, aged forty two, who was arrested alongside his girlfriend,
(03:38):
thirty seven year old he Sells Santiago Bonilla. Both are
charged in the brutal stabbing death of Sindrone's girlfriend's cousin,
forty two year old heel Hira Valsbonia, better known as Joy.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
But given the nature and circumstances the offense, the vision
from law enforcement, the planning involved in this particular case,
in the overall risk of physical harm, and my concerns
about appearance, court taking a account her ties to the community,
I'm going.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
To set substantial bail in these cases.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
I do find that there she does pose a risk
of physical harm to the community, as well as a
risk of harm and intimidation to witnesses.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
In this case, Bania's boyfriend, Elga Davis the Second, told
deputies he saw Centron stab Joy in the neck and
her Riverview home after a fight about money and chores.
He said in court that Centron kept stabbing.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I'm sitting there and the next thing I hear like
someone get hid in the throat, and I did me that.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
That sound and then I try to go run over
there and like and then I see her on.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
F Davis and Centron then forced him to help clean
up the blood and move the body. He said he's
ell helped to calling Joy evil and saying quote, she
deserved this. Put on to find the word.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Stuffed, folded, pushed, how was she fits into the box?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
We stuffed her. They took the box with Joy's remains
to her car. Davis said Sentrone and Hezel threatened to
kill him and Joy's teenage son if he didn't help.
At one point, Sintrone dressed in one of Joy's wigs
and dresses. Davis said Sentron also forced him to wear
her clothes while they drove around to dump the evidence.
(05:16):
They met up with another man known only as Tarzan
and dumped Joy's body in a mangrove area of the
Whedon Island Preserve near the Gandy Bridge. Davis said he
later called his parents, then turned himself into deputies and
led them to the body. Sentrone faces charges of second
degree murder, moving a body in unapproved conditions, tampering with
a witness, and tampering with evidence. He's being held without bond.
(05:39):
His Hell is charged with accessory after the fact and
is being held on two hundred thousand dollars bond. The
investigation continues. I'm Jennifer Gould.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
The quiet charm of Unison, Michigan was shattered by an
unsettling disappearance that has left investigators with a chilling mystery
and a family clinging to hope. Starla Goings, a sixty
five year old mom and beloved bank teller, vanished from
her home back on August fifteenth, just days after a
(06:09):
crucial legal development in her divorce case. The unsettling detail
of her abandoned car, found on a lonely stretch of road,
has sent chalk waves through the community and ignited a
desperate multi agency search. Here's Alger County Sheriff Todd Brock.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
That's our focus.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Will exhaust every lead we have and do anything we
possibly can to bring her home safely to her family.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Goings, described by her daughter as quote unquote bubbly and
quote unquote easy to love, was last seen by her
estranged husband, Stephen Goings, around midnight after the couple attended
the Upstate Fair. For a woman known to be in
constant contact with her family, her sudden silence was a
blaring red flag. A welfare check on August seventheenth confirmed
(07:01):
their worst fears, Starla was gone. The Alger County Sheriff's
Office immediately launched a full scale missing person investigation, but
a key piece of the puzzle quickly emerged. Deputies found
Starla's vehicle on August seventeenth, abandoned at the intersection of
sixteen Mile Lake Road and M ninety four, just a
(07:22):
few miles from her house. The discovery offered few clues
to her whereabouts, sparking a methodical but frenzied search. K
nine units, aerial drones and ground teams from the Michigan
State Police, Marquette County Sheriff's Office, Michigan Department of Natural Resources,
and the US Forest Service are now combing the rugged terrain,
(07:45):
following every possible lead. The case has been further complicated
by court records. It was revealed that Starla had filed
for divorce from her husband in May, and just four
days before her disappearance, a stipulated in order to release
real estate sale proceeds was signed. While authorities have not
(08:05):
officially suggested foul play, these details have raised questions about
the nature of her disappearance. With no suspects named, and
no sign of the five foot four, one hundred and
sixty pound woman with short white hair and tattoos. A
community is left with one lingering question, what happened to
(08:26):
Starla Goings. The Alger County Sheriffs is asking residents to
please check game or outdoor cameras around the area where
her orange twenty nineteen Volkswagon tig One SUV was found
between four pm on Friday, August fifteenth and eight pm
on Sunday, August seventeenth, to see if anything looks out
(08:48):
of place. Her family is pleading with the public for help,
urging anyone with information to contact the Alger County Sheriff's
Office at nine zero six three eight seven seventy thirty.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I'm Sidney Sumner. In a lengthy jailhouse interview, the father
of seven month old Emmanuel Harrow denied prosecutor's contention that
the boy suffered long term abuse before his presumed death,
and said his wife, who reported the infant missing, was innocent.
Jake Harrow, thirty two, told a Southern California News Group
reporter that he has been completely cooperative with investigators, although
(09:25):
he declined to say whether he led them to the
Moreno Valley Badlands over the weekend, where he was seen
in a jailhouse jumpsuit as crews searched the area. Harrow
and forty one year old Rebecca Harrow were charged this
week with killing little Emmanuel and filing a false police report.
Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said that investigators believed
(09:46):
that Emmanuel was severely abused over a period of time.
Hestron added both parents would have been aware of that abuse.
Harrow insisted that allegation was not true at all, but
declined to say what role he may have played in
the little boy's disappearance. Prosecutors and investigators said that there
has been some level of cooperation from the parents, but
(10:07):
declined to provide details. Rebecca Harrow reported her son missing
on August fourteenth, claiming that someone she did not see
knocked her unconscious while she was changing Emmanuel's diaper and
took the boy. In dramatic and emotional interviews after the
reported disappearance, she begged for help finding her son, but
investigators soon found inconsistencies in her stories, and a week later,
(10:30):
the parents were arrested. Formal murder charges were filed this week.
In his jailhouse interview, Jake Harrow also denied prosecutor's version
of his previous conviction for child abuse. He claimed that
he accidentally dropped his newborn daughter on a sink divider
while bathing her. She didn't look injured, he said, although
she is now left blind with three percent brain function
(10:52):
from her severe injuries, which included fresh and healing rib fractures,
a fractured skull, and a leg fracture. And his then
wife pleaded guilty and he was sentenced to one hundred
and eighty days in a work release program with a
suspended prison sentence, and was ordered to attend a child
abuse or treatment program. Haro said, somehow they magically convinced
(11:14):
me to take this plea deal. I was sick of court.
The judge knows I didn't do it. They just railroaded me.
I was the fall guy. District Attorney Hestern said that
there was no plea deal. Instead, Haro threw himself on
the mercy of the court and pled guilty in open
court to avoid trial. The judge then gave him a
big break with the sentence over prosecutor's strenuous objections. The
(11:37):
DA called it an outrageous error in judgment for this judge,
commenting mister Harrow should have been in prison at the
time that this crime happened. Haro declined to provide any
details about the current case, citing advice from his lawyer.
Harro said, I want to talk about it, but I can't.
I was told don't do no press. Rebecca Harrow, too
(11:58):
appears to be ignoring legal advice, speaking to a reporter
from jail over the weekend and sticking solidly to her
kidnapping story. Rebecca's husband says she is innocent. The media
is killing her. She is a beautiful woman. She loves
her children. The Riverside Sheriff's Department has declined to comment
about Harrow's interview, saying the investigation is very active and
(12:20):
will be for quite some time. For the latest crime
and justice news, be sure to follow the Crime Alert
hourly update on your favorite podcast app with this Crime Alert.
I'm Sydney Sumner.
Host
Nancy Grace
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