Women Behind Bars - Season 1, Episode 12 - Rita and Chanel - Full Episode | Forensic Files

on this episode of women behind bars one woman allegedly took part in a vicious hate crime that resulted in
murder my feeling is that he was still alive when they placed him in the trunk i'm not gonna lie i want the truth no
then chanel boyd tells her story she was convicted of inflicting fatal injuries on her eight-month-old baby
there was bruising to the baby's head and hemorrhaging to the eyes of the child they kept asking me what happened and i
just kept saying she failed two women two brutal crimes these are the stories of rita knits and chanel
boyd [Music] [Applause] [Music] on april 9 1988 campers in the remote wilderness of southern illinois
stumbled on an abandoned car inside the trunk they discovered a grisly scene the headless corpse of a young man the
car was burned to try and destroy any potential evidence that was inside the vehicle
you expect something like this to happen in the big cities you don't expect it to happen here detectives
identified the murder victim as 23-year-old michael miley a gay man who they suspected had been
killed because of his sexual orientation the investigation soon led to a married
couple richard and rita nitz who were found with the dead man's credit cards in my mind we're talking about very evil
people was rita a participant in a vicious hate crime or was she simply guilty by association
i've got four brothers so you know being the only girl in the family there was always
yeah there was always competition rita joe brookmeyer was born in 1959 and grew up in a midwestern working
class family her father made a living as a truck driver and only saw his children
two days a week on the weekends when he was home it was disney world when their father
was on the road rita says her mother was difficult to live with mom would just you know she would just
lose her temper and unfortunately i'd be the victim of that a lot i know in her own way she did love me
she just didn't know how if i were to sum up our mother in one word unpredictable
there was absolutely no way to predict what mood she was going to be in and that was subject to change at a
moment's notice despite rita's memories of a difficult childhood she did well in school
and even dreamed of becoming a lawyer but her ambitions were derailed when at 16 years old she got pregnant
she says under pressure from her mom rita married her 21 year old boyfriend michael hayward in 1975
and gave birth to her son charles the marriage ended five years later when rita claims she caught hayward with
another woman at age 23 rita married her second husband who she says was physically
abusive they divorced after three years she was somehow attracted to to bad boys she had a past history of
some involvement with men who walked on the wild side after two failed marriages 27-year-old rita met 33 year
old richard nitz in 1986 he was a car mechanic who had spent a few years in prison for burglary
on the day they met he rescued her when she fell ill and fainted in a parking lot
richard was working at the garage right next door and saw me and he picked me up and took
me to the hospital the two were married in october of that year it was just one of those
whirlwind type of romances i met him and within three months we ended up getting married but even on
her wedding day rita already wondered if she had made a mistake we got married out at the lake at sunset
it was so gorgeous and when the minister said you know you may now kiss the bride
he picked me up and threw me in the light wedding dress and all there is no question that richard nitz
was a bad guy he had a long criminal history and he had a very violent history however rita's brother claimed that she
too had a darker side rita was very good at exploiting any situation to her advantage
it was not beneath her to cheat or deceive or lie to anyone including myself to get whatever it was she wanted
rita and richard moved into a trailer on pear lane a rural neighborhood on the outskirts of carbondale illinois
richard continued to work as a mechanic and rita attended a nearby community college
within a mile of their home was crab orchard lake a popular playground for families
boaters and campers at night however it was a notorious gathering spot for gay men
who would get together and party it's well known in the carbondale area that there's
spots that gay people hang out in michael miley was a 23 year old college student and gay man who frequently met
with friends out at crab orchard lake mike was a very tender hearted and compassionate
person he he didn't like to see anybody hurting michael lived just a few miles from the lake
he and his mother went to church every week my mother was a choir director for small children in
the church and mike would help her with you know the choir and mike would come and help me in my sunday
school class michael had a fraternal twin named mark who was also gay michael was known to be a sensitive
young man but he got angry about the harassment he and his friends sometimes encountered when they hung out at the
lake there were a group of rednecks for one of a better term who made sport out of
going out to that area and harassing intimidating and even extorting members of the gay community prosecutors
believe that richard nitz was one of the worst of these troublemakers he had been arrested before for chasing
people around crab orchard lake with baseball bats and threatening to kill him because of their
their sexual orientation according to police reports in may of 1987 michael miley's twin brother mark was
parked at the lake when richard nitz went on a rampage richard and two men they showed up with
baseball bats and as the people tried to get away from them in their cars richard and his two male friends
attacked the cars with baseball bats breaking headlights windows that type of thing
rita claims that richard was also volatile and abusive with her after only a year of marriage she wanted
out in january of 1988 which would have been four months before the crime occurred
that they separated richard moved out and rita and her 12-year-old son charles kept the trailer on pair lane
rita invited a friend betty boyer to move in with her betty boyer had two children and so
there became a close connection between betty and rita she also was filing for divorce from her
husband who happened to be one of richard's buddies so we kind of just supported each other and help each other
out but rita felt threatened by richard so on march 24 1988 she bought a gun for protection
however authorities believed that the couple had reconciled by this time and that richard was actually with rita
during the gun purchase richard and rita had had a stormy relationship during during the
period of their marriage and and they were on again off again but you know at the time of these these
occurrences they were they're pretty much on [Music] in early april police responded to
another attack at crabb orchard lake gunshots had been fired into the car of a gay man who drove away unharmed
police did not know the identity of the three male assailants at the time but they would later learn that the
shooter was richard nitz when women behind bars continues they were raising a little hell and
turned his vehicle over and when they did the trunk lid popped open and out tumbled the
remains of mr miley were without the head in the spring of 1988 just outside the
city limits of carbondale illinois the gay community was terrorized by a series of hate-fueled and increasingly
violent assaults that took place at night at nearby crab orchard lake police suspected the attacks were the
work of several local bullies at the top of their list was richard nitz who'd been caught out of the lake
smashing cars with his baseball bat on april 6 1988 the violence escalated out of control
the victim this time was a gay college student 23 year old michael miley my mother remembers that mike
was picking up sticks in the yard on wednesday april the 6th because he was going to be
mowing the yard the next day they had dinner together and then they went to choir practice
they drove separately to choir practice i guess mike had plans to go out a friend stated to authorities that he
saw 23 year old michael miley in his car at the lake around 9 30 p.m police believe that miley crossed
paths with richard and rita knit soon after betty boyer was a friend of rita's who
along with her children was temporarily rooming with her according to rita that night betty and her children were
out at a local cookout with some friends but betty's testimony tells another story
betty boyer's testimony was that she was babysitting at the trailer for rita's child according to betty
rita and richard left the house together twice that evening and took rita's gun with them
when they returned a stranger also drove up [Music] around 10 o'clock 10 15 or so
she remembers rita and richard returning and michael miley showing up at the trailer
the young man getting out of his car betty stated that the young man began arguing with richard
richard told him that he needed to get off his property he was going to kill him
and when the man turned around to lead richard supposedly reached into his car got a baseball bat and ran up to the guy
and hit him in the back of the head with a downward motion like this richard kept hitting him with the
baseball bat several times then according to betty rita just watched and didn't say anything and
then when it was finished richard went to the miley's car took out the keys and he said help me get the body into
the trunk of the car she remembers rita helping richard carry the body and stuff his body in the trunk of his
vehicle betty told police she witnessed richard drive off in his car while rita followed
driving michael miley's car when richard and rita returned rita went straight to bed
and she claims that richard got some soap and water and was washing the blood off of the concrete patio
and that was the story that betty boyer told according to rita betty boyer's version
of april 6th was complete fiction rita insists she was home taking care of her son charles known as chucky
who was sick and that betty was never at the trailer that night me and chuckie were home that evening
richard did come up you know parked the car out in the road and asked me to come out you know i came
out we ended up arguing because he wanted you know some money for gas rita says richard
left around 10 or 11 p.m she didn't see him again until sometime after midnight richard came back later on foot knocked
on the doors i didn't even know who it was because i hadn't aired his car or anything
knocked on the door said that he had his car stuck in a ditch and you know would i help him pull it
out rita claims she reluctantly left her 12 year old sleeping while they drove down the road to pull richard's car from
a ditch then she went back home alone the next morning michael miley's family knew
something was wrong when he hadn't returned home my dad and my uncles and brothers they
searched the streets of carbondale driving up and down looking for mike's car on saturday night three days after the
disappearance of michael miley a burned and abandoned car was found by some campers near a remote graveyard
a group of young men i would say in the 18 to 21 year old age raised in little hell
and turned his vehicle over and when they did the trunk lid popped open and out tumbled the
remains of mr miley or without the head the body had been decapitated so they were looking at fingerprints to
identify the deceased authorities scoured the area to find the missing head but to no avail
it was apparent to investigators that whoever committed the murder tried to cover their tracks
the car was burned to try and destroy any potential evidence that was inside the vehicle any hairs fibers
fingerprints that could have been in the vehicle were mainly destroyed from the fire i
remember seeing my dad drive up in the driveway with the pastor in the car and so we knew that they had found
mike's body police suspected the murder was a hate crime because michael was gay
and began questioning residents in the area within days richard nitz was a person of interest
about a year ago richard nitz had assaulted three gay men but police had no solid proof
that richard was involved in the miley case until they got a break michael miley's credit cards had been
used after his death at a mall in kentucky one hour's drive from carbondale sales
clerks at the mall positively identified richard nitz as one of the shoppers obviously he went from a suspect
to the number one guy on our hit list at that point police questioned rita at the trailer
and she admitted to having been with richard at the mall but she maintained she didn't know the
credit cards belonged to a murder victim well when he started walking around the
stores and he held out these credit cards i'm like since when have you got credit cards you
know and he's like oh well glenn and danny had gave them to him for some work that he had done
on their cars police searched the trailer cars and surrounding grounds and discovered numerous items on the nits
property that had been purchased with michael miley's credit cards in addition they found several of
michael miley's personal items his car radio was found in the knits garage and miley's gold timex watch was
found in rita's car what was not found at the trailer according to detectives was the gun
rita purchased just a few weeks before the murder the prosecution believed the missing gun
was key to michael miley's death my feeling is that he was still alive when they placed him in the trunk
they drove out to some secluded spot and richard wanted to finish him off so he did that by shooting him in the head
the head was cut off so that there could not be any ballistics that we could find richard
and rita were arrested in may 1988 and held in the local jail pending separate trials
rita's son chucky was sent to live with his father we offered rita a 10-year sentence if she would
testify truthfully about what richard nitz had done rita did not take the plea deal i cannot
imagine that if she had the opportunity which obviously she did have to turn state's evidence and you know
make things go a lot smoother on her from everything i know about rita she would have dumped on him like a ton of
bricks i'm not gonna lie you know the state's attorney wanted me to lie then if you tell us that you saw him do this
we'll let you go i didn't see him do anything when women behind bars continues she said she knew where the head was i
want it found i want the truth known and later in this episode of women behind bars chanel boyd is accused of
fatally injuring her eight-month-old daughter her brain was bleeding her skull was
cracked in 1988 23 year old michael miley had been killed and decapitated as part of a
suspected gay hate crime two suspects had been identified rita nitz and her husband richard
rita would be prosecuted separately as an accomplice although she denied having any role in
the murder at all in august of 1989 just before her trial rita gave authorities information about
where she thought they could find the victim's head which had never been recovered
rita sent them to a remote area where she claimed to have helped her husband pull his car out of a ditch
on the night of the murder that would be the place to look that would be my best
guess as to where it would be she got out there and it was obvious she was playing games with us
um it might have been over in this field or you know it was dark and maybe it was
over here you know if you guys start digging over here you'll eventually find it
we felt she was not sincere at all in trying to cooperate with us rita believed that the missing
head would provide evidence to contradict the account of her former friend and roommate betty
boyer who claimed that she had seen richard attack michael miley with a baseball bat
while rita stood by if the head were discovered and showed no signs of blunt force trauma
it would destroy betty boyer's credibility i want it found i want the truth known
if and when it's ever found and god i pray every day that it is they'll see betty boyer is lying
through her teeth we were trying rita on the theory of accountability in that she
had not done the actual killing of michael miley she had just helped aided and abetted
the state star witness was betty boyer but the defense argued that betty had compelling reasons to fabricate her
testimony betty boyer had some limitations of some intellectual limitations and she had some problems with the
department of children and family services in relation to her children they told
her if she didn't say what they wanted her to say that they were going to take her kids
from her and lock her up in prison forever she gave in to the pressure but the prosecution denies these allegations and
points to betty's consistency on key elements as proof she was speaking the truth she
was attacked by the defense attorneys she never wavered on the fact that i looked out
that window and i saw that young man getting beat with a baseball bat and i saw rita nitz help him stuff him in the
trunk of his car the defense hammered away at other aspects of betty's testimony
didn't work in terms of where betty said she was where her sworn testimony where
she was what she saw and how she could have seen it it just didn't work investigators for the defense measured
distances at the trailer and viewing angles at the window from which betty was looking out
according to their testimony it was absolutely impossible for someone to look at that
angle and to be able to see miley's car that was parked down the end of the driveway
and nobody knew exactly where his vehicle was parked betty boyer she was making an estimate
the prosecution then presented evidence of a single head hair found on the victim's body
forensic scientist glenn shubert's evaluation backed up the prosecution's theory that miley had suffered severe
damage to his head the hair contained crush type of damage which could be indicative of some type of head
trauma that occurred at some point being hit over the head with a baseball bat would cause this type of damage
but the lack of other forensic evidence would help read his defense since it created doubt that rita had
ever been in the victim's car this went against betty boyer's story about the night of the murder
betty bohr's testimonies i recall had rita driving away in the miley vehicle with
richard behind her in his vehicle and there was never a scintilla in iota or nary a peppercorn of evidence
which put her in that vehicle and and these people were not sophisticated there were no
gloves they wouldn't have worried about fingerprints in the real world it's not like csi
it's quite frankly very rare that we actually find a fingerprint that helps us solve the case rita's defense
attorney took a gamble by putting rita on the stand to face the jury she tried to convince the jury that she
was an abused woman and she came off as being a big liar my trial wasn't even my trial
the state's attorney went through my entire trial saying richard did richard did richard
did richard did well richard is not me i am not richard betty boyer's testimony along with
evidence of rita's use of the victim's credit card helped to persuade the jury we were all very grateful and thankful
that rita had been found guilty mike was murdered because he was gay and it was out of just pure hatred they
didn't know anything about mike they didn't know what a good person he was and i think that once she has served out
her natural life in prison that justice will have been served in my opinion the conviction of rita
nitz for first degree murder was a gross miscarriage of justice and perhaps even a grotesque miscarriage of justice
and i'm bothered by it to this day rita was incarcerated at a maximum security prison in northern illinois
her husband richard nitz was convicted of first-degree murder and is currently serving a life sentence
they have since divorced and rita changed her name back to brookmeier the hardest thing about being
and coming to prison at all is knowing every day of your life is spent not knowing you don't know what
happened you don't know for real why you're here 20 years later i'm just as convinced
that they are guilty as i was back in 1988 there is absolutely no doubt in my mind
rita is estranged from most of her family except for her mother and her son chuckie who is now 32 years old
she focuses her efforts on helping others in prison since she gets little or no contact with
family i do my best to do everything i can to help others here it's a good feeling to know that you can
take and talk to these girls that come in and they're like i can't do it i can't
do it i can't do it yes you can baby i've made it if you dwell on all the wrongs in the world
it'll kill you i'll just kill you [Music] next up on women behind bars a 16 year
old girl is convicted of murdering her baby they kept asking me what happened and i
just kept saying she failed for more information about women behind bars go to www.wetv
on the morning of february 17 1998 paramedics responded to a 9-1-1 call from a multi-family home in chicago
sixteen-year-old chanel boyd held her limp an unconscious baby in her arms the eight-month-old was rushed to the
emergency room where doctors suspected the injuries were intentional there was bruising to the baby's head and
hemorrhaging to the eyes of the child the young mom claimed her baby fell off the couch but
police suspected child abuse the injuries in this case were similar to falling out of a second
story window according to the medical examiner chanel eventually confessed to police and was charged with murder
but shortly thereafter she changed her story and accused the baby's father instead
was chanel boyd a teenage mom who lost control and killed her baby or was her boyfriend the true murderer
i was rambunctious as a kid i was hard-headed i did what i wanted to do chanel boyd
was born in 1981 to a mother who struggled with drug addiction chanel and her siblings lived
with her grandparents in inner city chicago my grandma adopted us when we was young
because my mom was on drugs it was six of us three girls with three boys my daddy didn't stay too far away
so he was in my life too the kids grew up in the stable working-class environment
provided by their grandparents but chanel remembers how her mother would randomly come in and out of their
lives my mom was so addicted that she'd stay gone for days or maybe even weeks not sleep eat
or do nothing but smoke crack every day if i see on the street she'd be looking so bad and i would walk
right past her [Music] chanel's mom was not a reliable part of her life but extended family embraced
her and her siblings and took part in their upbringing i was full about everybody my aunties
uncles grandparents anything i wanted i got but as chanel became a teenager she admits she had a rebellious streak that
caused tension with her grandmother i was not close with my grandmother me and her really
didn't get along ever so most of the time we argue back and forth i like to go to parties hang out
with my friends i started smoking weed every day drinking every day even at school i was drinking
and smoking i was very very frustral because i didn't want her to go out there and get into any kind of trouble
chanel also admits that she would get into fights at school that would cause her to be expelled
i got kicked out of school in eighth grade because my little brother told me that these
other little kids had jumped on them so i ended up going to school the next day and fought the kids
at age 14 chanel met 17 year old jermaine mullen on a neighborhood street he was selling drugs he was a drug
dealer he was a bad boy and that was attractive she had money nice cars in her sophomore year chanel quit high
school i dropped out because i was smoking and drinking so much and not coming home at night
or maybe not coming home for a couple days and i had started selling drugs the neighborhood i lived in it was a lot
of bad influences drugs crime you name it but if you didn't want to do it you didn't have to it was all
up to you while continuing to sell drugs to make extra spending money she moved in with
jermaine at his grandparents home in 1996 just weeks after her 15th birthday chanelle became pregnant i felt
something in my stomach move and that's when i realized i was pregnant i was scared then
i didn't want to get abortion because that was killing the baby and i wasn't gonna do it
chanel kept her pregnancy a secret for nearly six months but in january 1997 jermaine was picked
up by police and sent to prison on a drug charge chanel moved back into her grandmother's
home and revealed she was pregnant she was real happy she was happy about being a mom
it was scary trying to figure out how i was going to be an adult and grow up and take care of a growing baby
while jermaine was incarcerated chanel says she tried to get her life back on track
i was getting ready to enroll back in school but that didn't happen because i ended up
selling more drugs chantelle was born may 29 1997. i cried all day the first half i had
i was happy i was happy chenille bonded with her baby daughter chantella real good
she really loved her she really wanted to be a good mom she was a quiet happy baby she never
really cried the only time she cried is when she thought i was leaving you know his
grandmother testified that chanel was a decent mother and you know the baby was healthy
just a little bit underweight but that wasn't uncommon chanel adjusted to life as a new mom but
she admits missing the freedom to go out with friends at night time i want to run a street
stand smoke drink go to parties do what teenagers do in late 1997 jermaine was released from
prison chanel decided to move in with him again against the wishes of her grandmother
it was like she wanted me to grow up she wanted to just still have control of my
life my mother was trying to prevent anything that you know bad would happen to the baby chanel took
her baby and went to live with jermaine at his grandparents home i was thinking we was going to be a
happy little family but i knew that was not going to happen with him still selling drugs he ain't banging
chanel says jermaine rarely took care of their baby and to make matters worse she felt he'd been cheating on her we
would fight a lot we physically fought like every week after she moved with him and she would
come here and i would notice that she would have bandages on her arms so i would say what happened to your arm
and she said oh the iron fell on my ear i found out later that jermaine had burnt her
with the iron hit her in the eye twice made it bloodshot and gave her a black eye i would fight him
back he just wasn't gonna beat me up initially when jermaine was questioned he had said
he had never touched an l when we informed him that other family members said he did he
admitted that on one occasion he did hit her while chanel and her aunt claimed that
jermaine was a violent boyfriend jermaine had his own stories of how chanel could be abusive too
he told police that chanel got upset at him and sometimes directed her frustrations at their child
jermaine then went on to tell us she was shaking the baby and then threw her on the couch
and jermaine kept telling her don't take it out on the baby according to chanel the couple's
fighting got out of control in the early morning hours of february 17th when an argument broke out over the baby
she started crying so i got up to change up pamper fix her bottle but she kept on crying jermaine was
irritated he went over there and picked her up so now he's holding her like this
and pushing me with other harm when i'm trying to get hurt so she hollering and screaming still so
he takes the pillow and put it over her face i tried to get to it but i couldn't
so he took the pillow off her face and she was hollering and screaming even more trying to catch her breath she was
so red so he picked up again and took it and slammed up against the wall she was just hollering so
i was like stop please stop but he wouldn't he slammed her head up against the wall
again and she just wasn't crying no more when women behind bars continues there was
bruising to the baby's head and hemorrhaging to the eyes of the child in 1998 sixteen-year-old chanel boyd and
her 19-year-old boyfriend jermaine mullen lived together in a tumultuous relationship while raising their baby
daughter chantella on a cold february morning chanel called 9-1-1 claiming that her baby wasn't breathing
an ambulance rushed the eight-month-old to the emergency room at nearby mount sinai hospital
where doctors immediately suspected child abuse there was bruising to the baby's head
and hemorrhaging to the eyes of the child her brain was bleeding her skull was cracked
chanel told doctors the baby had rolled off the couch and fallen on the floor doctors performed emergency surgery to
relieve pressure on chantelle's brain making sure that the child is stable is the most important
priority and after that's done that's when the child protective services team is notified
the surgeons knew that this could not have happened the way chanel had told them accidental injuries
versus inflicted injuries usually look different doctors noted that chantelle's eyes showed signs of
hemorrhaging or bleeding retinal hemorrhages are a huge red flag for inflicted trauma there has to be a fair
amount of force inflicted on their brain to cause bleeding in the retina they notified dcfs department children
family services as well as the police which is their duty in a case like this police arrived and questioned both
chanel and jermaine about what happened to their baby they kept asking me what happened and i
just kept saying she failed from the way they was looking you could tell they didn't believe me they brought
jermaine and chanel down to the police station she said she had put the baby to sleep and when
she woke up the next morning the baby had rolled off the couch that she was sleeping on and was on the floor
and was having difficulty breathing jermaine was questioned separately by detectives
he said he had come home late the night before and went to bed and in the morning
chanel woke him up and said that the baby was on the floor and had trouble breathing chanel's
family arrived at the precinct and authorities released her to their custody detectives hoped her family could
convince her to tell the truth the police told me to take her home and talk to her
jermaine was held overnight at the police station they actually ended up holding germain because they thought
that he had in fact committed this murder or caused the injuries to the child baby chantello was on life support in
the pediatric intensive care unit and doctors kept watch over her around the clock
at her grandparents home chanel refused to talk about what happened i know she was in total shock because
she was just she would just sit there and cry she wouldn't say a word she just sat there
and cried i didn't want to see nobody i want nobody to see me on february 18th chanelle phoned
detectives and said she was ready to talk but she requested that they take her by
the hospital first to see chantella i remember her with all those tubes in her and bandages i didn't stay long
because i couldn't look at her like that detectives then drove chanel to the precinct for more questioning
when i got to the police station they talked to me about if it was a mistake then you could tell
us it was a mistake and then we'll let you go chanel then revealed to detectives that
baby chantelle's injuries actually occurred three days before she was rushed to the hospital
during the course of this interview chanel told us that on valentine's day she had
a severe headache and the baby would not stop crying i ended up telling the police
that i was mad and i had threw up against the wall and it was a mistake that's what i told
the baby was pretty laxadaisical for the next couple days eating very little by the morning of february 17th police
believe chanel realized the baby wasn't breathing and finally called 9-1-1 armed with
chanel's confession police once again questioned jermaine who confirmed the abuse jermaine was saying
the baby was abused by chanel because jermaine could come and go as he pleased and chanel was stuck at home with the
baby chanel was arrested and charged with aggravated battery jermaine was also charged with the crime
jermaine was looking at conviction through accountability he was there at the time the baby was
being abused and didn't do anything about it in illinois if you have a child that's
being abused and it results in death and you haven't done anything to stop that abuse you're as guilty as
the abuser on february 19th two days after she was brought to the hospital baby chantelle died
i knew she was gone but i still i still didn't know how to react to it i didn't process it then and it still
took me years to process it after the fact the charges against chanel boyd and jermaine mullen were amended to first
degree murder despite being just 16 years old chanel would be tried as an adult frank medea was assigned to defend
chanel who now claimed that she was innocent she told me jermaine was an abusive
partner that he's the one who committed the acts which caused the injuries but medea knew this was a different
story than the one she confessed to police chanel was now saying that she had confessed only because she felt pressure
from the police who thought she was guilty why would i implicate myself because the way that they was talking to
me already made me feel like they were saying i did it anyway i said it because i was still a minor and i figured that
really wasn't going to do too much nothing she was pretty much straightforward that
jermaine is the one who did it and she didn't tell the police that because she was afraid of him he grabbed
me he was like you better not tell him i did it was really whether the jury believed
her statement taken by the police or her testimony that jermaine is the one who did it
when i got on the stand i told the jury that jermaine smashed my baby head against the wall
slammed against the wall i thought we had a chance to win her case i believed her story and
i tried to get the jury to believe her story the jury thought that since chanel had
made a false statement to the police to start out with that any testimony she gave was also
false and that's more likely than not why they chose to disbelieve it i was totally shocked that they found
her guilty there is no doubt in my mind chanel didn't do this i saw how she loved that baby i saw how she took care
of that baby 40 years is a long time for a 16 year old girl for making a mistake you have to look at
what she knew she was under educated she was poor she was overwhelmed it's a you know very tragic situation
because you have babies having babies and the eight-month-old victim is the tragedy in
the case unlike chanel jermaine mullen was not tried by a jury but by a judge his lawyer presented
chanel's initial statement that germain was not present when the fatal injuries were inflicted
based on that statement and the fact that there was no evidence that germain was present
the judge acquitted germain chanel boyd was incarcerated at a medium-security prison
three hours drive from chicago everything was hopeless then i was detached from everything and everybody
i was depressed every day all day staying connected to family including her mom who is now off drugs
kept chanel going and continues to be her lifeline today i know sometimes she can get depressed
we keep in touch with chanel through our letters chanel and her mom writes to each other every day
they develop they have a close relationship i think right now looking back chanel wishes she had
listened to her grandmother and regrets moving in with jermaine after chantella was born
i was fine until he got out of jail i should have just stayed at home but i did chanel maintains she is
innocent i lied when i said that i threw my baby up against the wall jeremiah did i think that
i shouldn't have been the only one to go to jail whether i did it or not i still hold a lot of resentment towards
him in the meantime she holds on to the good memories of her baby i think about chantelle a lot every day
her smile she was a playful baby that's what i remember when i think about it they are good thoughts

Brief Summary

Rita Nitz and Chanel Boyd face severe charges for murder in two separate cases involving hate crime and child abuse.

Key points

The Murder of Michael Miley. In 1988, 23-year-old Michael Miley was brutally murdered in a suspected hate crime.
Rita Nitz's Troubled Past. Rita Nitz had a difficult childhood and tumultuous relationships, leading to her involvement in a murder case.
The Investigation Unfolds. Police suspect Richard Nitz in the murder of Michael Miley after his credit cards are used posthumously.
Chanel's Confession. Chanel admits to police that her baby’s injuries occurred days before the 911 call.
Tragic Outcome. Baby Chantelle dies two days after being rushed to the hospital.
Chanel's Trial. Chanel is tried as an adult for her baby's death, despite her age.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I’m not gonna lie, I want the truth.

Rita's insistence on wanting the truth about the murder.

0:16WatchJan 12, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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