Game Over | The Noah Crooks Case

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Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime
podcast where I tell stories of real crimes

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with real victims whose cases are so
shocking that many are left wondering how is

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this even real? I use my
experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined

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with my years as a criminal justice
educator, dig deep into complex cases of

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evil acts, some so evil many
feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable

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as intended for mature audiences. If
you are easily offended, then I'm not

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your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, Kelly Jenning's here.

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I'm back for another episode of Unspeakable, a true crime podcast by yours

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so keep talking to me. Also, people are telling me that they

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Ism, So I guess that some of

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the things I say that are just
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do you have anything that you'd like
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Send it to me, send it
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gonna check it out for you.
So I was actually in the bathtub.

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I do take baths, believe it
or not. But I was scrolling through

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my phone and I came across this
case. It's the Noah Crooks case,

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and I said, oh my god, I gotta do this one. The

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people need to hear this, So
let's get started. This case is gonna

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be in two twelve when this all
blew up. Okay. March twenty fourth,

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twenty twelve, in O Sage,
Iowa, the police receive a phone

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call from a young boy and he
tells them I just killed my mom.

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So who is his mom. Her
name is Gretchen Crooks. She's thirty seven

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years old and they live in a
rural home at Cameo Avenue, like I

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said, in O Sage, Iowa, and she is married. She has

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a husband. His name is William
William Crooks, and he works at Cargill

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Kitchen Solutions in Mason City. So
you can kind of see these are just

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average average people right living their life
paying their bills. They had been married

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for seventeen years and they shared one
son named Noah. He is thirteen years

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old, and Noah is the one
that called nine one one. Now.

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Everyone has said that he was a
good kid for all intents and purposes,

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and he had the typical issues I
guess you would say teens had. That

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he did have some anxiety and that
he was hyperactive. So they did put

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him one medication for ADHD, but
other than that, there were no red

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flags really that said he would kill
his mom. He performed well in school,

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and you know, they kind of
looked into his social history there and

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they said, look, he did
well in school. I think he had

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two write ups for something that happened
on the bus when he was younger,

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but nothing big. And he was
a big video game player. He liked

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to play his video games. So
kind of a normal family. Gretchen was

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a graduate of Mason City High School
back in nineteen ninety two, and after

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that she went to college and she
got a four year nursing degree from the

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University of Iowa College and she was
working as a nurse at Mercy Medical Center

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in North Iowa. So people described
her, you know what kind of woman

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was she because her son killed her
right and everyone described this woman as kind,

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compassionate, helpful, caring, someone
who genuinely cared about others and what

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they were feeling and what they were
going through. You know. For example,

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in two thousand and five, she
traveled my direction right to the Gulf

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coast and she was aiding people that
were displaced by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

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And you know that was big for
us. Hurricane Katrina. Everyone knows

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about New Orleans and how it basically
went underwater, and Katrina hit us too.

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Where we are in Rita and gustav
Hurricanes are a big deal down here.

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You know, we may chug our
our Margharita's and how at the moon

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and watch the wind blow, but
they cause a lot of damage. She

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wanted to come help, and a
local paper actually spoke to her about her

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mission when she came down here,
and her response wasn't I quote, I

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wanted to help. I wanted to
do something to contribute. She was a

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go getter and she was a hard
worker too. She there was no laziness

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about this woman. She worked hard. She got additional trainings too. On

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the job. She was a skilled
nurse, and this allowed her to work

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in multiple areas of nursing and that
included the emergency room. She also worked

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in critical care and she did cardiovascular
recovery. So the woman was good at

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her job. She was very much
dedicated to the nursing field, as you

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can tell, and it was very
important to her, even though she had

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obtained her nursing degree, that she
wanted to keep going in her profession.

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She was dedicated to this nursing profession
and she decided, you know what,

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I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go
from my master's degree. And that's about

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the time in twenty twelve where this
all went down. So she was in

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the process of pursuing a master's degree
in nursing administration and was just all around

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doing your everyday stuff, run of
the mill family. She would work,

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she paid her bills, she cooked
supper. They were a loving family.

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They did love one another, happy
marriage, just like the rest of us,

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just trying to make it through life. Well, about seven thirty pm

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on March twenty fourth is when that
nine one one call was placed from the

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Crook's home and the police answered.
The dispatcher that day was named Barbe Michael,

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and when she took the call,
she quickly, you know, found

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out that this was the son Noah
on the other end of the phone,

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and when questioned, his demeanor was
described as cool and calm when he was

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talking to her. This is a
direct quote. I just shot my mom.

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I'm not joking at all. She's
dead. I'm scared. I killed

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my mom with a twenty two.
I don't know why I did it.

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I just he says he shot her
twenty rounds. Maybe. He then adds

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after that, I did try to
rape her. I tried to rape her,

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but I just couldn't do it.
What did he tried to rape his

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own mother? Wow? He went
on a little further, and then he

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apologized and then updated the dispatcher to
tell the police that his weapon was empty.

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I wish it was just a dream
so I could wake up and kiss

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and hug her. Okay, you
shot her and then you wanted to rape

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her, but it was just a
bad dream, and you wish you could

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kiss her and hug her, all
right. He then said something just came

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over me. I'm gonna have to
move away. Then he doesn't mourn the

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loss of his mother or the fact
that she's bleeding out all over the couch.

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But instead he just continues on his
sadness, his sadness over what he

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is going to lose now as a
result of his actions. He starts complaining

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he's not going to get to marry
his eighth grade girlfriend. Now, he's

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not even going to get into a
good college. He said, that goes

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down the drain. Now I'm gonna
have to move, I'm gonna have to

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go to jail. How about we
put aside the reality that you just killed

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your mom in cold blooded murder,
and look at how out of touch you

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are with what you've just done.
Son, You're not gonna get to marry

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your eighth grade girlfriend, and you
won't get to go to college. What

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in the hell is going through your
head right now that that is your mom

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is laying on a couch bleeding and
dying, and you're worried about your eighth

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grade girlfriend in college. Okay,
you know, a little selfish prick.

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So he goes further. He says, I'm never gonna be able to get

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a good job now because this is
gonna be on my resume. I'll barely

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be able to get a job like
McDonald's. I mean, I had plans

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of going to Michigan State University to
get an engineering job and making my own

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car company, and that's all down
the drain. Now, really your resume.

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You're worried about your resume? Look, I can write it for you.

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It's gonna be three it is long. Here, here you go,

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I'll write it for you. Noah
Crooks born nineteen ninety nine, two thousand

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and twenty and twelve. Mommy took
care of me twenty twelve to current,

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I'm in prison for murdering her.
Like, that's your freaking resume? What

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are you talking about? So the
dispatcher tells, Noah, look, deputies

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are on the way to your family
home. You know, just stay there.

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And what is he concerned with?
What do you think his next concern

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would be? I mean, obviously
he's not gonna get to marry his girlfriend

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and his resume screwed. But when
she says the police are on the way

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to the home, he says,
they're not gonna shoot me, are they?

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Why? Noah, why are you
afraid it might hurt? Is it

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scary? Or you know your mom
she can go through it, but you

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you shouldn't, right, that's that's
too much. That's too much to ask.

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You can shoot your mom, but
you don't want to be shot.

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Give me a break, man.
So while he's waiting for the police to

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get there, he sends a text
to his dad okay, and he's supposedly

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expressing his remorse, and he texted
his dad, Dad, this is Noah.

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I killed mom accidentally. I regret
it. Come home now please all

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right. Well, this obviously does
not age well, But in the moment,

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the dad thought Noah was joking,
and so he replied and said,

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okay, just throw her in the
grove. We'll take care of her later.

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I know that does not age well, but he was totally not aware

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that his son was telling the truth. It literally wasn't apparent that it was.

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It wasn't a joke until the police
called him and said, no,

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you know your wife is dead.
Your son shot her. Now. When

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the deputies arrived at the home,
it was Deputy Jeff Hufftelin that knocked on

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the front door, and Noah answered
the door and he still was on the

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phone with the dispatcher. So the
deputy asked him to come outside and sit

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on the porch while some other deputies
were going to walk into the home.

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So at that point that's when huffed
Len asked Noah where his mom was,

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and Noah told him that she was
in the living room and that the gun

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was on a chair. So he
said, okay, you sit on the

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porch. I'm gonna go ahead and
go inside. And when Hufftlen, you

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know, got inside and found Gretchen, she was slouched over the couch and

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he could clearly see multiple bullet holes
in her chest. Now, what was

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just even more disheartening or disconcerting or
whatever, is that Gretchen's pajama top was

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unbuttoned and she was naked from the
waist down. I cannot even relate to

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what was going through his head.
I can't fathom. It's bad enough you

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shot and killed your mom, but
then you undressed her and you wanted to

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look at her naked. There's a
lot wrong with that. Without saying but

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that's like even a that's weird.
So he runs up and checks her,

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and he says it was readily apparent
that she was deceased, that she was

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not going to be saved. And
in the dining room they found a twenty

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two caliber rifle like Noah had said
there would be, and it was at

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that point that they handcuffed Noah and
they put him in the backseat of the

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patrol car. Now, once the
police were at the station, Noah started

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talking and he made an absolute,
full and detailed confession of what had happened.

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And you know, people want to
know, you know, not that

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it's going to bring her back,
but what had happened, Like, why

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would you go shoot your mom?
You've got to explain this to us where

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it makes sense. And so what
happened was that night, Gretchen was making

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dinner for her son, and Noah
said that he decided while she was making

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supper he was up in his room
he was going to kill his mom.

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He just made the decision. So
he decided he would go downstairs to shoot.

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But when he got downstairs, her
back was to him because she was,

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I guess at the counter, cooking
or doing whatever. And he decided

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that that wasn't an honorable enough way
to shoot someone. You don't shoot someone

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in the back. Wow, I'm
good thing you're thinking about honor, right,

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So he went back upstairs to his
room a little while later, she

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got finished with dinner and so she
called him to come down. Noah,

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come down, Supper is ready,
and then she sat down on the couch

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in the living room to continue working
on her laptop because she was doing her

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nursing master's work. So shortly before
nine thirty pm, that's when Noah entered

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the room, and without saying you're
doing anything, he just took a vantage

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point about fifteen feet away from his
mother, and he had the twenty two

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caliber weapon, and he lifted the
weapon and took aim and shot Gretchen twenty

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one times as she sat on the
couch twenty one times. I don't know

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about you. Seems like a bit
of overkill that you would just make the

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decision to shoot your mom twenty one
times. Now you might be saying,

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well, where did he get the
gun? Some people are curious about that.

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How did he get it? Well, his mom actually had purchased it

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for him as a gift. I
will not sit here on this podcast and

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victim blame this poor woman for buying
that weapon. Based on everything that was

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said to this point, she didn't
really have any reason to think that he

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was homicidal. Okay, he was
typical teenagers, you know, gets an

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attitude every now and then fighting whatever, but nothing that would ever suggest that

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he wanted to kill her. She
had no evidence of that. And maybe

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you're from a different part of the
country and that's not normative, but where

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I'm from, it's very normal.
Parents buy their kids, you know,

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weapons to hunt. And you know, we're a big game state. You

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know, we like our hunting and
fishing and partying and parading and it's just

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part of our culture. So after
he shot at the twenty one times,

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in all of his lack of horror, he then decided to undress his mother

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and an attempt to rape her,
like rape her, rape her. I

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guess if you want to give him
any pad on the back, at least

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he had like a hair of a
snippet of moral compass, because then he

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just said he told the police,
but I just couldn't do it. Okay,

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Well, I mean, I guess, good, good job. I

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don't know if he wants to be
thought of his um, you know,

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a pad on the back for that, But he just he couldn't rape her,

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so he got her naked. He
just couldn't raper Now. Gretchen's autopsy,

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the report did show that she was
shot a toll of twenty one times.

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She had two wounds to the head, four to the neck, and

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fifteen to the chest. And it
was a doctor Jonathan Thompson, who had

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performed the autopsy, and based on
his investigation of it, he couldn't definitively

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determine which shot was the fatal shot. But I mean, twenty one shots

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in any fashion is a lot,
and you know, her chances of survival

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were not very high, to say
the least. So I don't know if

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you think like me. But my
next question, like the biggest question,

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is why? Why? What could
make you the woman who gave you life,

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who fed you, who nurtured you, who took care of you,

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who didn't show any signs of ill
behavior or abuse or anything. Why why

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would you kill this woman? I
mean, there's no reason that's going to

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be good enough for the normal person
who tries to understand this. You know

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why? But don't you want to
know? Like, give me an ounce,

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give me something to go off of
that I might in some way could

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say, okay, all right,
you know, maybe you mishandled some anger

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or something like that. Now,
as if any explanation to this point would

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be a worthy cause, it's not
but Noah explained that the reason he shot

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his mother twenty one times was because
she had taken away his Call of Duty

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video game because he had bad grades. His grades had started slipping over a

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video game. He assassinated his own
mother. Now, in my opinion,

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it's important to understand the video game
that she took away. I think,

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hey, she did what a good
mom does, right. Your grades are

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slipping, You're not doing what you're
supposed to be doing. You're spending too

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much time playing your video games.
Grades are important. I'm taking way the

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game until you bring your grades up. I would do that in my house.

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I think any other mother worth her
assault would say no, no,

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no, no, Now, we're
going to fix and correct this behavior.

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Call of Duty. Though, if
you're not familiar with that game, I

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actually used to play it back in
the day, so I'm familiar with this

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game. So I thought i'd give
you just a little insight to it.

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Now. Again, I'm an adult, okay, I was playing this game

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in my twenties, and it's,
you know, a grandiose, violent game

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with an objective, and the objective
is to get the most kills. Now,

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I know that sounds morbid and you're
like, what the hell. But

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to a well adjusted older team or
young adult, you know, the thought

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process behind the game is that you
are fighting like like war, okay,

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and you're the good guys and you're
protecting your military base or you're protecting you're

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you know, you're just fighting the
bad guys. That's the premise, that's

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the understanding, and we like that
right in this world. That's why we

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watch action movies is we want good
to win, so we represent the good

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guys. Here come the bad guys
trying to kill us. And so you

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know, it's a game, and
the bad guys in the game, it's

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like war. They're nameless, they're
emotionless. They're just casualties and they don't

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mean anything, kind of like in
a movie. I like to put it

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this way. You know, when
you watch a movie and you want the

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good guy to win and then there's
like a big explosion scene and like you

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see all these people are dead on
the ground, and you don't think sec

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a second about it because they're nameless. They're nobodies. Nobody knows who they

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are. They're just extras in the
film. You know, it's kind of

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the same concept when you're playing this
game. You're not out to kill a

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specific person. You're just out to
win the objective. Whether you're a gamer

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or not. The game is fun, it's high stress, and you know

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you're just trying to win the game. Now back to the whole why question.

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There's a lot of talk and there
has been for years, ever since

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video games became so violent. I
mean, I grew up on Mario Do

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Do Do Do Do Do Do Do
Do Do Do Do Do Do Do do?

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Right, remember the old gray console
and you have the games, and

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right, you have to blow out
the game if it stopped working, and

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then you put it in and you
press the button and we're squishing, you

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know, um mushroom men and you're
just trying to go save the princess.

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Like that's old school video games.
And that's what a lot of people,

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you know, thirty and older,
that's what we played. The games today

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are straight up violence, a lot
of them really, like even Grand Theft

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Auto if you've never looked that up. The objective is to like steal cars,

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and you're like, you know,
you can be a pump and you're

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hurting prostitutes and you can beat people
up, and you know, maybe we've

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gone a little wild on video games
in society, or maybe it's something that

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needs to be monitored better. And
a lot of people jump to that conclusion.

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They say, well, you know, clearly she mom must have played

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some role in this, because she's
letting her young sump. First, she

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bought him a gun, Secondly,
she's letting him play these violent video games.

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Well, I'm someone who I just
don't want to throw that on someone.

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I want to like, look it
up. I want to do some

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research. I want to say,
Okay, is there anything that validates that

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thought process, because if not,
then I'm barking up the wrong treat.

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And I don't about know about you, but I want to live in fact

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and truth, and maybe you know, some basis not just an opinion because

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it's my opinion, and that's what
I think. I want to I'm willing

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to learn. I'm willing to be
wrong. I don't know about you.

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But if you're wondering if violent video
games could have played a role in his

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aggression towards his mom, that was
a specific bit of research that I did

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for you so that you could know
this while you're driving, or you're working

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out, or whatever it is you're
doing, and I got this information from

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a website called Frontiers in Psychology.
I felt like this was a good site

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and that it wasn't just somebody just
running their mouth about what they thought.

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They cited a whole lot of studies
in this and I won't try to are

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you with the minutia of the entire
study, but this was the overall findings

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of this so to assess the effect
of normative beliefs about aggression and family environment

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on exposure to violent video games and
adolescent aggression. Basically saying, you know,

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normative beliefs about aggression are the ones
that you know, what do you

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think is normal in terms of violence? And the way that they did this

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study was the first thing was they
had everyone who did the study who was

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a participant self reported their exposure to
violent video games, their family environment,

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and then their normative beliefs about aggression
and aggressive behavior. So this is not

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someone asking and interpreting it. They
literally were self reporting their answers and the

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results showed that there was a significant
positive correlation between exposure to violent video games

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and adolescent aggression. So there is
a link there. If the games are

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very violent, the kids may become
more have more aggression about them. Now,

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something about that is to mention is
that normative beliefs about aggression had an

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effect on exposure to violent video games
and adolescent aggression. So if violence doesn't

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bother you, then you may be
more likely to play the violent games.

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I guess in a way, it's
not something that would like horrify you and

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have you turn it off. It's
just that's the way that things go.

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So while family environment moderated that first
part of that process of information, for

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individuals with a good family environment,
exposure to video games or violent video games

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had only a direct effect on aggression. Okay, so if they have a

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good family, you know, there
was only a direct effect on their aggression

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level. But for people who self
reported from a poor family environment, it

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had both direct and indirect effects of
their normative beliefs about aggression. So they

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looked at these other models and I'm
not, like I said, I'm not

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gonna get into it, but this
general aggression model and this catalyst model,

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and they basically we're trying to say, we want to shed some light on

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the complex mechanism of violent video games
influencing adolescent aggression. So I hope you're

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following me here that overall, they
said, Okay, there is a link

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between violent video games exposure to them, but your level of how bad it

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affects you is more in tune with
what do you think is normal in terms

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of aggression. So, for example, if your mom is beat by your

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dad and you see that a lot, then you're desensitized to how horrible that

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is because it's normative to your level
of violence lens. Whereas if you come

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from a home where there's zero violence, you're not allowed to watch our rated

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movies. You know, you go
to church on Sundays and Monday through Saturday,

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and you know you stay home and
you're sheltered, then violence of that

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00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:15.960
level would be just unbelievable to you
because you've never experienced it. You've never

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00:26:17.079 --> 00:26:22.200
been there, you've never had that
in your face. So when they keep

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talking about normative beliefs about aggression,
they said that what you have as a

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concept of what is normative aggression is
the most important cognitive factor that influences adolescent

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aggression. So you can have general
beliefs and retaliatory beliefs. And I hope

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I'm not boring you with this,
but don't you want to get into it,

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00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:48.799
like how could this have possibly happened? And you can't just say,

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00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:51.799
oh, it just did. I
mean, let's look at a little deeper.

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So general normative beliefs mean your general
view about aggression, like I just

355
00:26:56.119 --> 00:27:02.799
told you, And if a young
person will tell you that aggression is something

356
00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:07.480
that they see as normal, it
is a very strong predictor of physical,

357
00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:17.119
verbal, and indirect aggression in kids
they emulate what they've seen. The studies

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00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:25.920
found that retaliatory beliefs, which means
aggressive behaviors in provocative situations, meaning how

359
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will you respond physically? Then in
aggressive situations, retaliatory normative beliefs about aggression

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00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:40.279
can anticipate adolescent retaliation behavior after one
year. So if they if you watch

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00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:47.039
violence after a year, I mean, the chances are that your violence level

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will go up as an adolescent.
So why would I mention these beliefs to

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you? And like I told you, it's because that's whatever you're willing to

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accept as normative is going to be
what you might put out there to the

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world from yourself. So another thing
that was interesting is teenagers that have high

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normative beliefs about aggression are highly likely
or more likely to become bullies of others

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and cyber bullying. They'll take it
to the next level. If they see

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the violence and it's normative to them
and they get you used to it,

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it ups their level and they're more
likely to go bully others and to feel

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that bravado of going out and dominating
other people in some fashion. So basically,

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00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:44.920
the more kids are accepting of violent
behaviors as normal, the more likely

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they are to follow that model of
acceptability in their lives. And this makes

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total sense to me too, And
I kind of talk to my students about

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this in class. Think about it. Kids who grew up in homes where

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parents smoke weed and it's like a
daily thing, Like parents smoke weed in

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the car and at home and they're
rolling joints on the table and things.

377
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It's not a big deal to these
kids. You know, we're disciplining kids

378
00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:07.839
in school now for weed on campus
and they laugh at us, like,

379
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really, parents don't care. The
parents who smoke weed do not care if

380
00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:17.680
their kids get in trouble for weed. It's normative to them. That's normal.

381
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On the flip side, if you've
ever seen the movie The blind Side,

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00:29:22.359 --> 00:29:29.680
I really liked that movie. Right, If you remember, Michael says

383
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:33.559
to Leanne Tooey, hey, this
is the first time that I've ever had

384
00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:36.279
one of these, and she goes, what a room? Your own room?

385
00:29:36.359 --> 00:29:38.359
And he goes, Noah bed,
and it's like shocking. Right,

386
00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:41.359
That's the point in the film is
it's shocking. That's the flip side.

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00:29:41.559 --> 00:29:45.079
It's normative to not have a bed, So when you see one in a

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00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:48.720
house, it's shocking to you.
Well, in your parents smoke weed and

389
00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:52.039
do dope, Well then it's not
a shocking to you to see it,

390
00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:59.680
and it's less negatively looked on,
I guess by the kids that are around

391
00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:06.000
it. But I want to point
out again the study indicates that you cannot

392
00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:11.839
victim blame Noah's mom because they looked
into parental monitoring of video games and they

393
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.599
found that even if parents are monitoring
the video games, the usage, and

394
00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:23.079
how long they're on it, that
monitoring did not influence the adolescent in their

395
00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:27.119
behaviors. So if they're seeing the
violence and it's getting worse, if the

396
00:30:27.240 --> 00:30:30.960
parents take the video games away or
if they say you're not going to play

397
00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:36.759
it all the time, it does
not adversely affect that meaning, don't let

398
00:30:36.839 --> 00:30:40.359
them play the violent video games.
And all I'm someone who played to myself,

399
00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:45.359
I just think you know your kid, and I don't tell people how

400
00:30:45.400 --> 00:30:48.680
to live their lives or raise their
kids. But if your child is already

401
00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:52.160
anger issues, if your child is
already fighting in school and doing all these

402
00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:57.160
up the violence, it doesn't make
sense to let them keep playing the video

403
00:30:57.240 --> 00:31:03.680
games. But again, gretchen And
did not see that before she let him

404
00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:07.920
start playing the video games. So
Noah was arrested and charged with first degree

405
00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:12.559
murder and assault with the attent with
the intent to commit sexual abuse. Now

406
00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:18.759
here's a kicker. He was only
thirteen, you remember that. But laws

407
00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:22.759
vary state by state. I'll give
you an example. In Louisiana, we

408
00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:26.480
will light that ass up if you
were ten years old or older. I'm

409
00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:30.920
serious, it's not common. But
if you are ten years old and you

410
00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:33.799
do something egregious enough Louisiana, I'll
say, all right, you wanna play

411
00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:37.960
big Boy games, You're gonna win
big Boy prizes. But you know in

412
00:31:37.079 --> 00:31:41.039
other you know, some states,
life means life. In Louisiana, if

413
00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:44.359
you get a life sentence, you
will die in prison. But other states

414
00:31:44.480 --> 00:31:52.039
life means twenty five years and then
you're released. Some states have juvenile life,

415
00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:56.480
which means you're incarcerated until you age
out legally and then you're released.

416
00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:00.680
Some states don't well. Under Iowa
law, where this ac heard, a

417
00:32:00.839 --> 00:32:05.440
juvenile needed to be at least fourteen
years old to be charged in an adult

418
00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:10.960
court. He was thirteen, but
the investigators filed for a waiver of youthful

419
00:32:12.039 --> 00:32:15.839
offender status and so if granted,
that meant that Noah could be held under

420
00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:21.279
supervision you know of the judicial system, even after he turned eighteen, and

421
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:25.240
basically meaning he'll be in a juvenile
facility, which those have their pros and

422
00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:30.440
cons too. If you don't know
much about juvenile facilities, I would challenge

423
00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:32.200
you to look it up, or
maybe I can do another episode where I

424
00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:38.359
explain what happens in these facilities.
But this isn't like little kids you know

425
00:32:38.519 --> 00:32:44.240
who you know skip school. This
is these facilities have kids that have done

426
00:32:44.279 --> 00:32:47.279
horrible things. I mean everything from
you know, armed robbery to murder,

427
00:32:47.960 --> 00:32:53.240
drug charges and things like that.
But you can become a better criminal in

428
00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:57.519
these facilities. These young kids,
maybe they they effed up and they did

429
00:32:57.599 --> 00:32:59.799
something really bad. For real,
or they were a part of it,

430
00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:05.519
but maybe they really weren't going to
become these lifelong criminals. But you put

431
00:33:05.559 --> 00:33:07.079
them in these juvenile facilities, which
I mean, we have to do something.

432
00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:13.160
But depending on the kid, you
know, they can be hardened there.

433
00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:17.480
And in this situation, you would
go to the juvenile facility until you

434
00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:22.359
turn eighteen and then you move up
to big boy prison where you can test

435
00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:27.519
your luck there. So in the
court proceedings, this is where the real

436
00:33:27.640 --> 00:33:30.799
games are played. If you don't
realize that who can show the jury the

437
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:35.400
best show, who can put on
the song and dance? I e.

438
00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:39.759
Remember Casey Anthony and how she was
found not guilty of murdering her kid when

439
00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:45.079
O J, God and everybody else
knows it. I mean, Ray Charles

440
00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:50.039
could have seen her guilt, but
she walked. And it's because the defense

441
00:33:50.119 --> 00:33:52.880
put on the better show. They
put that reasonable doubt in there. So

442
00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:58.880
remember there's beyond a reasonable doubt versus
a preponderance of evidence. So I'll explain

443
00:33:58.920 --> 00:34:05.079
again real quick for you. The
higher the stakes in court, the higher

444
00:34:05.160 --> 00:34:07.920
the necessary proof to prove guilt.
So, for example, if he was

445
00:34:07.960 --> 00:34:10.199
going to face a death penalty,
which he wasn't, but if he was

446
00:34:10.239 --> 00:34:14.480
going to face the death penalty,
that is super high stakes. He has

447
00:34:14.519 --> 00:34:20.280
a lot to lose. So that
means that the prosecutors are going to have

448
00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:24.360
to prove their case beyond a reasonable
doubt. Beyond a reasonable doubt, So

449
00:34:24.440 --> 00:34:29.239
if I had to quantify that for
you, the jurors need to be ninety

450
00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:34.079
five percent sure that he did this
case, that he did it. Now,

451
00:34:34.239 --> 00:34:37.280
in other courts, for example,
like civil court, you know,

452
00:34:37.599 --> 00:34:40.760
the stakes are much lower, so
the necessary proof is going to be lower

453
00:34:42.039 --> 00:34:44.800
to prove guilt. So like if
you you know, someone says you owe

454
00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:46.559
him five hundred dollars and they sue
you in the people's court, right,

455
00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:50.440
shout out, Judge Judy, that
woman is the real MVP. By the

456
00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:52.199
way, I loved Judge Judy.
I wish you would come get ahold of

457
00:34:52.280 --> 00:34:55.320
my youngest kid and teach her a
thing or two about a thing or two.

458
00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:59.920
But I digress. But you know, if you're gonna lose five d

459
00:35:00.199 --> 00:35:04.719
dollars and that's all that's at stake, then a preponderance of evidence, which

460
00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:07.280
means more likely than not, is
all that's required because there's not a lot

461
00:35:07.320 --> 00:35:10.440
at stake, it's five hundred bucks. So if I had to quantify that

462
00:35:10.559 --> 00:35:15.639
for you, fifty one percent likelihood. So kind of keep that in mind.

463
00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:19.079
In this instance, higher stakes,
we're going to be looking for beyond

464
00:35:19.239 --> 00:35:22.519
a reasonable doubt. So the game
here is going to be played. Noah's

465
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:29.239
defense team goes to court and argues
that they were going to do an insanity

466
00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:37.719
defense and a diminished responsibility of defense
for their client. And you know the

467
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:43.519
judge, his name was Judge Greg
Rosenblatt. He determined that Noah could be

468
00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:47.079
tried as a youthful offender, and
that means that if he was convicted,

469
00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:52.880
he would remain incarcerated until his eighteenth
birthday. And then he said that they

470
00:35:52.920 --> 00:36:00.239
would do evaluations. They would conduct
those on Noah and kind of see where

471
00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:07.519
he was at that point. So
that's exactly what happened. They did incarcerate

472
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:14.800
him, and they did do these
evaluations on him, and according to the

473
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:20.199
judge, they found that Noah was
and I quote, logical, coherent,

474
00:36:20.679 --> 00:36:28.519
and goal directed before, during,
and after the shooting. So what that

475
00:36:28.679 --> 00:36:35.360
tells you is he's not crazy.
He knew exactly what he was doing.

476
00:36:35.480 --> 00:36:38.400
He still had goals that he wanted
to achieve. He just basically didn't give

477
00:36:38.440 --> 00:36:44.320
a crap about his mom because he
was mad about the video games, and

478
00:36:44.440 --> 00:36:51.039
so he planned and he executed.
That's what he did well. To make

479
00:36:51.119 --> 00:36:55.559
sure of that, he was evaluated
by two different people. More than two,

480
00:36:55.599 --> 00:36:59.920
but the two I'm about to talk
about a psychiatrist and a psychologist.

481
00:37:00.360 --> 00:37:01.760
Now, if you don't know the
difference, Mama j is here to teach

482
00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:06.400
you. For a second. A
psychiatrist is an MD and has a lot

483
00:37:06.480 --> 00:37:15.079
more power over you know, prescriptions
and and things that will affect medicinally.

484
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:20.000
I guess if you will um someone
with a with a psychiatric issue, Whereas

485
00:37:20.119 --> 00:37:23.039
the psychologist is a PhD level and
they do a lot of the same in

486
00:37:23.079 --> 00:37:28.920
their studies. But the goal of
the psychologist is to more help with things

487
00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:34.039
like trauma, factors that bring up
trauma or that you know, cause mental

488
00:37:34.119 --> 00:37:37.960
health distress and things of that nature. So I hope I explained that well,

489
00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:40.320
and I'm just trying to give you
an overview. For example, in

490
00:37:40.360 --> 00:37:45.559
Louisiana, a psychologist can write prescriptions, but in other states they cannot.

491
00:37:45.679 --> 00:37:50.079
So again, just a national average
here, so you can have some understanding

492
00:37:50.119 --> 00:37:53.079
of that. So back to a
psychiatrist, doctor Michael Taylor, was who

493
00:37:53.159 --> 00:38:00.239
interviewed Noah, and he found that
Noah's actions were part of deeply ingrand personality

494
00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:06.679
traits which have been present for years
despite his relative youth, and will continue

495
00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:10.000
to be present for the foreseeable future. He then added, with a strong

496
00:38:10.159 --> 00:38:16.400
degree of medical certainty, I can
state that the prospects for rehabilitating Noah Crooks

497
00:38:16.760 --> 00:38:22.199
prior to his eighteenth birthday are nil. He has no psychiatric illness which had

498
00:38:22.239 --> 00:38:28.519
any impact on his actions, which
might be treated same thing. He's not

499
00:38:28.639 --> 00:38:34.440
crazy, he's mean as hell.
He's evil, but you know, we

500
00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:39.119
don't legislate morality, you know.
And so he's saying, you know,

501
00:38:39.920 --> 00:38:44.519
we can lock him up, but
we're not going to change his train of

502
00:38:44.559 --> 00:38:49.440
thought. We're not going to fix
that. Doctor an assaulter, who is

503
00:38:49.480 --> 00:38:53.000
the psychologist who studied him, agreed
and her statement was, it is not

504
00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:57.199
done or it was not done in
a heat of passion or a heat of

505
00:38:57.239 --> 00:39:00.639
the moment. And there are no
indications that he was psychotic or even upset

506
00:39:00.719 --> 00:39:05.280
at the time of the shooting.
And finally, he has a series of

507
00:39:05.400 --> 00:39:09.079
personality traits that are very difficult to
treat. I do not believe that at

508
00:39:09.280 --> 00:39:13.679
present, there is any way to
treat a lack of conscience, a lack

509
00:39:13.760 --> 00:39:19.519
of empathy, and extreme callousness.
I am pessimistic about the chance that any

510
00:39:19.559 --> 00:39:25.079
treatment program can claim to successfully treat
these traits, even with a much longer

511
00:39:25.519 --> 00:39:30.400
frame of time. Both of them
are saying, this dude ain't fixable.

512
00:39:31.239 --> 00:39:37.239
He's evil. He showed no remorse, he didn't care. It was all

513
00:39:37.239 --> 00:39:39.800
about him. What is he going
to gain from it? He can get

514
00:39:39.840 --> 00:39:44.400
his video games back, and he
can marry his eighth grade girlfriend. But

515
00:39:44.559 --> 00:39:46.800
mom believes she's out of the picture
and she's not going to bother me anymore.

516
00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:53.119
That considered his murder trial. Noah'
murder trial began in April of twenty

517
00:39:53.199 --> 00:39:57.920
thirteen, and during those opening statements, the defense attorney, his name was

518
00:39:57.960 --> 00:40:06.519
William Kitemus. He said that Noah
was suffering from intermittent explosive disorder, a

519
00:40:06.639 --> 00:40:12.239
behavioral disorder that is characterized by repeated
episodes of impulsive, aggressive, or violent

520
00:40:12.360 --> 00:40:16.480
behavior, and he said that his
violent outburst was caused by Gretchen taken away

521
00:40:16.719 --> 00:40:21.880
Noah's game. Okay, two doctors
haven't said that the people who I don't

522
00:40:21.880 --> 00:40:24.480
know studied this for a living.
And the second thing is this pisses me

523
00:40:24.639 --> 00:40:29.880
off as a mama and as a
human being, because if you're going to

524
00:40:29.960 --> 00:40:31.760
get there and stand up in a
court of law and say that the reason

525
00:40:31.840 --> 00:40:37.199
that this little prick of a kid
got a gun loaded, it went downstairs,

526
00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:39.440
didn't want to shoot her in the
back because he's more honorable than that,

527
00:40:39.800 --> 00:40:45.079
then came back downstairs after she finished
cooking his dinner shot her twenty one

528
00:40:45.159 --> 00:40:49.119
times. If you're going to say
that that all was caused because a video

529
00:40:49.239 --> 00:40:52.880
game was taken away you, sir, I hopefully don't become a parent,

530
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:59.079
because what are you trying to say
here that any type of discipline will result

531
00:40:59.119 --> 00:41:05.639
in your death? If if your
kid's angry, no, that dog doesn't

532
00:41:05.719 --> 00:41:09.079
hunt with me. Kids get angry, and then I'm gonna tear that ass

533
00:41:09.199 --> 00:41:14.119
up more. You shut your mouth, You get in your room and you

534
00:41:14.159 --> 00:41:19.000
can sit quietly, or you can
clean it. And that's not changing.

535
00:41:19.320 --> 00:41:22.559
And Gretchen did the right thing.
Gretchen is a victim. She is not

536
00:41:22.880 --> 00:41:28.639
a willing participant in her demise.
She was parenting one of the hardest jobs

537
00:41:28.679 --> 00:41:32.519
there is in today's world, it's
hardest hell to parent people kids, and

538
00:41:32.599 --> 00:41:37.559
it's hard enough then when you get
murdered by one that's a psychopath, and

539
00:41:37.719 --> 00:41:39.000
then someone's gonna try to stand up
and say, yeah, well, if

540
00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:42.800
you wouldn't take taking his video game
away, then he wouldn't have had a

541
00:41:42.880 --> 00:41:46.079
violent outburst. Yeah, okay.
Sure. The dad was brought to testify

542
00:41:46.159 --> 00:41:50.400
on the stand. William the dad, and during the trial, he did

543
00:41:50.519 --> 00:41:53.719
say that Gretchen was the disciplinarian of
the family and that it did lead to

544
00:41:53.800 --> 00:42:00.280
fights between mother and son. And
he said that Noah and Gretchen and had

545
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:04.280
a loving relationship. She loved her
son, but you know it could get

546
00:42:04.320 --> 00:42:07.679
stormy, and you know, Gretchen
would say that they'd had their issues,

547
00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:12.679
but then the next time they'd be
playing games together. It sounds like a

548
00:42:12.920 --> 00:42:17.519
mother son relationship. It's not all
butterflies. Love does not always mean you're

549
00:42:17.559 --> 00:42:22.679
getting along, Like, in what
world is that even a thought? He

550
00:42:22.920 --> 00:42:27.679
did reveal though, that on one
occasion, Noah once told him that he

551
00:42:27.760 --> 00:42:30.559
wanted to kill his mom, but
again he didn't take it seriously. He

552
00:42:30.639 --> 00:42:34.360
said, I just didn't think he
was a threat at the time. I

553
00:42:34.440 --> 00:42:37.639
thought it was just a kid kind
of you know, mouthing off. I

554
00:42:37.679 --> 00:42:40.920
guess sometimes people do mean it when
they're evil, when they're hateful, and

555
00:42:42.039 --> 00:42:45.920
they're self absorbed in their own wants. Now, the defense brought three of

556
00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:50.400
Noah's friends into testify. These were
young kids too, you know, fourteen

557
00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:55.039
in age, and I don't know
that these kids necessarily did a lot of

558
00:42:55.079 --> 00:42:59.480
good. But one of the fourteen
year old boys that testified said that he

559
00:42:59.639 --> 00:43:02.960
played Hall of Duty with Noah online
a lot, and that in twenty twelve,

560
00:43:04.440 --> 00:43:08.880
Noah had shifted and become aggressive and
violent and had even begun stabbing classmates

561
00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:13.719
that they had with pencils. To
me, that sounds like he was it

562
00:43:13.920 --> 00:43:16.960
was a normal relationship. But he
hit that fourteen years old and he started,

563
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:20.039
you know, he was playing those
video games, and again it had

564
00:43:20.079 --> 00:43:22.480
that effect on him, and no
matter what Gretchen did, at that point,

565
00:43:22.599 --> 00:43:28.400
that violence became normative in his mind, and thus he acted on it.

566
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:34.800
That same witness testified that the incidences
happened once or twice every couple of

567
00:43:34.920 --> 00:43:37.280
weeks, but then it wouldn't happen
again for months. So to say that

568
00:43:37.400 --> 00:43:44.000
he was constantly being aggressive really didn't
didn't pan out there. It just seemed

569
00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:47.280
like he would have flashes of it. He then further testified that Noah had

570
00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:52.599
threatened to kill other students and his
mother to that kid, but again it

571
00:43:52.760 --> 00:43:57.719
was like he was just talking big
violence, and no one thought that he

572
00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:00.159
really meant it. So a different
fourteen year old came in to testify,

573
00:44:00.679 --> 00:44:04.639
and she this was a female,
told the court that she had become friends

574
00:44:04.679 --> 00:44:09.760
with Noah in seventh grade and that
in March he had started talking about suicide,

575
00:44:10.239 --> 00:44:15.159
which was new, and his behavior
began to change, and she said

576
00:44:15.199 --> 00:44:21.199
that he got angry quicker, and
that even in Pe they had that class

577
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:23.599
together, that he started getting mad
at things that he normally wouldn't get mad

578
00:44:23.679 --> 00:44:27.800
at. So you can kind of
see there was a shift at that fourteen

579
00:44:27.840 --> 00:44:30.320
years kind of Mason wandered, did
puberty play a role in this too?

580
00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:37.079
In testosterone and all that. Now
the jury would hear the testimony from various

581
00:44:37.199 --> 00:44:43.079
doctors, and when doctor Michael Taylor
testified that Noah was not suffering from any

582
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:47.239
type of diagnosable mental illness when the
shooting occurred, he said that he did

583
00:44:47.360 --> 00:44:52.159
not think that Noah felt any remorse
he felt absolutely no remorse for the murder,

584
00:44:52.559 --> 00:44:58.440
nor did he accept responsibility. And
his direct statement was Noah was able

585
00:44:58.480 --> 00:45:02.119
to calmly and without any change in
his demeanor whatsoever, described to me the

586
00:45:02.280 --> 00:45:06.480
hours in which he decided to shoot
his mother, and that he did not

587
00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:09.679
feel bad for his mother. He
said he didn't. He felt he didn't

588
00:45:09.760 --> 00:45:15.800
need his mother. She was expendable, he could, he didn't need her.

589
00:45:16.320 --> 00:45:20.800
He was good without her. It
was fine. And then again,

590
00:45:20.840 --> 00:45:24.440
like I said. His assessment was
backed up by doctor Annassaulter, who said

591
00:45:24.519 --> 00:45:29.840
that she, through all of her
investigation and study of him, felt that

592
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.519
Noah absolutely new right from wrong.
Stated that she believed Noah suffered from a

593
00:45:34.599 --> 00:45:38.519
conduct disorder that involved a repetitive pattern
of behavior in which the basic rights of

594
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:43.800
other people were violated. Please don't
take the word disorder here and feel sorry

595
00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:46.039
for him. This is not a
disorder like he can't you know, like

596
00:45:46.639 --> 00:45:52.400
like um, I don't know,
losing losing an example here, But this

597
00:45:52.639 --> 00:45:58.079
is not something that a normal person
couldn't overcome. You don't violate the rights

598
00:45:58.119 --> 00:46:01.599
of other people. Their rights begin
where your rights end, and vice versa.

599
00:46:01.719 --> 00:46:06.119
Your rights end where their rights begin. This means he just did whatever

600
00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:09.280
the hell he wanted, regardless of
whether it hurt other people. And she

601
00:46:09.440 --> 00:46:13.519
highlighted the fact that when Noah called
nine one one, he was more concerned

602
00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:15.519
with what it was going to happen
to him than the fact that his mother

603
00:46:15.639 --> 00:46:19.599
was bleeding out on the couch with
twenty one gunshot wounds to the chest.

604
00:46:21.880 --> 00:46:24.199
So you do get favorable witness,
which I've mentioned before, You can hire

605
00:46:24.239 --> 00:46:30.000
people. The defense can hire their
own psychologists and psychiatrists to testify on their

606
00:46:30.079 --> 00:46:34.599
behalf. And so they had a
doctor, Donnard Doudney, who was hired

607
00:46:34.639 --> 00:46:37.480
by the defense, and he kind
of countered this and said that Noah suffered

608
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:42.960
from a disorder that resulted in periods
of rage and violence. And he testified

609
00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:47.039
that Noah had told him he felt
a command to pick up the rifle and

610
00:46:47.159 --> 00:46:51.360
shoot while in a fit of rage, and he stated when he started shooting,

611
00:46:51.599 --> 00:46:54.440
he just couldn't stop. I mean, I'm from the South, honey,

612
00:46:54.519 --> 00:46:58.480
we called that a hissy fit.
My mama would say, stop throwing

613
00:46:58.480 --> 00:47:05.320
a hissy fit, not stopped throwing
a fit of rage with bursts of violence

614
00:47:06.159 --> 00:47:12.559
for contemper tantrum. So, after
all the testimony was presented, it was

615
00:47:12.599 --> 00:47:17.320
time for closing arguments and prosecutor Denise
Timmins referred to Noah as a cold blooded

616
00:47:17.400 --> 00:47:22.360
killer who was not insane when he
shot and killed his mother, and she

617
00:47:22.519 --> 00:47:27.719
stated, the last thing she saw
before she died was her own son raising

618
00:47:27.760 --> 00:47:31.239
a gun to her and pulling the
trigger. He wanted to see his mother's

619
00:47:31.320 --> 00:47:35.440
face when she died. And I
agree with that, because remember, it's

620
00:47:35.440 --> 00:47:40.800
not honorable to shoot him in the
back. The defense got up and when

621
00:47:40.880 --> 00:47:45.960
he was given his statement, he
referred to Noah as a sick boy.

622
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:51.400
He stated, in this little boy's
background, common sense would tell you that

623
00:47:51.519 --> 00:47:54.679
this was a very sick boy.
He had the idea to have sexual intercourse

624
00:47:54.760 --> 00:48:00.880
with his own mother. Yeah,
so if it was just a fit of

625
00:48:01.079 --> 00:48:08.199
rage and anger, why did he
want to sexually assault his mother. It's

626
00:48:08.199 --> 00:48:13.079
a whole different ball game. There's
a difference between mad and violent and mad

627
00:48:13.239 --> 00:48:16.519
violent and wanting to sexually arouse yourself. Get out of here with that.

628
00:48:17.719 --> 00:48:22.440
So they deliberated. The jury deliberated
for more than seventeen hours. They gave

629
00:48:22.480 --> 00:48:25.159
it good thought, and they returned
with a verdict. They found Noah Crooks

630
00:48:25.280 --> 00:48:30.360
was guilty of the lesser charge of
second degree murder. The jury rejected his

631
00:48:30.440 --> 00:48:35.360
claims of insanity. They didn't think
he was crazy, but they opted for

632
00:48:35.480 --> 00:48:38.679
the less severe verdict. He was
sentenced up to fifty years in prison,

633
00:48:39.920 --> 00:48:44.719
and he was ordered to be held
at the State Training School in Eldora until

634
00:48:44.760 --> 00:48:49.639
he turned eighteen. They do review
his case annually, but he is still

635
00:48:50.159 --> 00:48:53.719
behind bars. And like I always
do, I looked up some pictures for

636
00:48:53.880 --> 00:48:59.360
you. I have some then and
now that I'm going to show you.

637
00:48:59.440 --> 00:49:01.280
So get on you know, on
Facebook, and you can look up these

638
00:49:01.320 --> 00:49:08.840
pictures now if you fast forward.
Noah was in the news for some other

639
00:49:08.920 --> 00:49:14.880
comments that he made, and he's
quoted now as saying he didn't think anything

640
00:49:14.920 --> 00:49:17.079
would happen. He just thought that
he should have gotten grounded for it.

641
00:49:17.599 --> 00:49:24.840
Okay, you think grounding is an
acceptable response to murder. But like we

642
00:49:24.920 --> 00:49:30.039
said, he got the fifty years
in prison. Now he was nineteen and

643
00:49:30.159 --> 00:49:35.639
eligible for parole, and he did
challenge the district court's handling of the case.

644
00:49:35.920 --> 00:49:40.079
His argument was basically that the prosecutors
shouldn't have prosecuted him under the States

645
00:49:40.159 --> 00:49:45.840
Youthful Offender Statutes, which would have
allowed the juvenile court to transfer the case

646
00:49:45.880 --> 00:49:49.760
to an adult court, and he
said that what's happened to him, the

647
00:49:49.880 --> 00:49:53.599
sentence is cruel and unusual punishment,
right, your little eighth Amendment violation.

648
00:49:54.559 --> 00:49:59.559
So the Supreme Court looked at it
and was like, yeah, no,

649
00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:04.840
the laws, the laws you know, allowed them to court, the court

650
00:50:04.920 --> 00:50:08.280
to track his progress before the deciding
that prison sentence, and so they had

651
00:50:08.320 --> 00:50:13.719
about five years to track him at
this point. And the court ruled that

652
00:50:13.920 --> 00:50:17.639
it had acted in its discretion by
imposing that fifty year term. And they

653
00:50:17.760 --> 00:50:22.519
noted that the psychologist had said he
wasn't capable of experiencing guilt and remorse and

654
00:50:22.679 --> 00:50:28.119
that no treatment was going to help
him even when he turned eighteen. During

655
00:50:28.239 --> 00:50:30.719
the time that he was he's been
in Eldora, he has avoided addressing the

656
00:50:30.840 --> 00:50:35.880
reasons for why he killed his mom. At this point, he's not saying

657
00:50:35.920 --> 00:50:39.719
anything more. But before the sentencing, and this one kind of made me

658
00:50:39.760 --> 00:50:45.880
sit back and think. Before the
sentencing, his father confronted him during some

659
00:50:46.079 --> 00:50:53.199
meetings with the counselors, and Crooks
responded that he quote thought he would be

660
00:50:53.360 --> 00:50:58.079
better off without her, And that's
a direct quote from the court record,

661
00:50:59.360 --> 00:51:05.760
and in May of twenty sixteen,
at that sentencing hearing, Krooks's father,

662
00:51:06.159 --> 00:51:12.480
William Crooks, got up and spoke
and he said, I have visited you

663
00:51:13.079 --> 00:51:19.519
several times at Eldorra, pushing you
to talk about your mother, and in

664
00:51:19.599 --> 00:51:24.440
the past four years you have never
once spoken about your mother. You have

665
00:51:24.559 --> 00:51:30.440
shown no remorse. If this is
not a husband honoring his wife, this

666
00:51:30.639 --> 00:51:34.920
next statement, it means something.
This man was a good man and is

667
00:51:34.920 --> 00:51:37.920
a good man. I feel he
said, four years is not enough to

668
00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:43.039
pay for taking your mother's life.
I'm sorry. I love you, Noah,

669
00:51:43.280 --> 00:51:47.880
but to let you out would ruin
so many more lives. I think

670
00:51:47.960 --> 00:51:52.360
Dad gets it. I think the
courts get it. His mother, Gretchen,

671
00:51:52.440 --> 00:51:55.320
is a beautiful woman, or was
a beautiful woman on my post pictures

672
00:51:55.360 --> 00:52:00.840
for you, and Dad just looks
like a nice guy. I can't say

673
00:52:00.880 --> 00:52:04.280
that much. For Noah. There's
an updated picture of him, and he

674
00:52:04.400 --> 00:52:08.599
looks like a trashy Karen that you
would see in the Dollar General. And

675
00:52:08.679 --> 00:52:13.920
he's got that wide eyed stare of
crazy people that you see. He just

676
00:52:14.039 --> 00:52:20.639
makes me sick. I feel such
terror, terrible weight in my heart for

677
00:52:20.760 --> 00:52:23.960
his father, who lost not only
his son but his wife. But you

678
00:52:24.039 --> 00:52:28.760
know, I don't know what's worse
Noah's existence or his freaking hairline.