NANCY GRACE

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, breaking news out of Charleston, South Carolina, the suburbs. A 27-year-old mother of two taken from the local hospital dressed in hospital scrubs and handcuffed, escorted straight to jail. Why? Police say 1-year-old Triniti, 4-year-old Shawn died a painful death when left trapped in soaring temperatures in mom`s car. Accident? Hold on! After mom makes a solo run to Arby`s for her own dinner, police find the children in garbage bags dead under the kitchen sink. Hope you enjoyed that roast beef sandwich, Mom, because it`s jail food tonight!(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shocking details in the case of two kids who died after sitting in a hot car while their mother worked just steps away. The dead bodies of 4-year-old Shawn and 1-year-old Triniti were washed and dressed before being wrapped in trash bags, according to arrest warrants. A pathologist believes the kids were probably dead from heat exposure before they were washed, dressed and thrown under the sink next to a bag of garbage.(END VIDEO CLIP)GRACE: And tonight, a high-profile editor of a major Oakland newspaper gunned down execution-style on a public street as he, like the rest of us, simply walked to work that morning. The newspaper superstar, 57-year-old Chauncey Bailey (ph), now believed by police to be the victim of a hired hitman. But why?(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chauncey Bailey, a long-time journalist who was shot to death yesterday in the heart of downtown Oakland. Fifty-eight- year-old Bailey was walking to work yesterday morning on 14th and (INAUDIBLE) Streets when he was gunned down. He most recently served as editor of "The Oakland Post." SWAT teams made entry into that one business called Your Black Muslim Bakery. It`s on the 5800 block of San Pablo (ph) Avenue. They say this stems out of a year-long investigation, including murder and robbery, several violent crimes.UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search warrant yielded several weapons and other evidence of value, including evidence linking the murder of Chauncey Bailey to members of the Your Black Muslim Bakery.(END VIDEO CLIP)GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight.First to South Carolina -- her two children found dead under the kitchen sink, left alone in a stifling hot car while mom goes to work, the temperatures soaring there in Charleston, South Carolina. But that`s not the end of it. Her two children apparently dead, and she heads to dinner at Arby`s?(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, police sayUNIDENTIFIED MALE: We responded to a disturbance at the Villa (ph) Apartments on Reenout (ph) Road. Officers arrived on scene. They saw a female in a struggle with an unknown subject. That male directed the officers to check inside the cabinet, at which time the bodies of two small children were discovered.UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Early speculation is that, you know, she took the children with her to work, didn`t have any care for the children, and left them in the car. That`s one possible, you know, instance that we`re investigating.(END VIDEO CLIP)GRACE: OK, let me get this straight. After the two children, toddlers ages 1 and 4, are dead, apparently from heat exhaustion there in the car, heat stroke, she then bathed them, washed them and meticulously dressed them before putting them out with the garbage?Out to Marika Kelderman, reporter with WCSC-TV joining us from Charleston. Marika, explain. What`s the latest?MARIKA KELDERMAN, WCSC-TV: Well, the big news today, Nancy, was that two psychiatrists were actually with the children`s mother, Sametta Heyward, just hours ago. They were brought in by her defense attorney to start on a mental evaluation that he actually says could take several weeks to complete. They want to do a full history to find out what her mental status was.Now, this was going on at the exact same time that a visitation was being held for her two children, Shawn Campbell, Jr., and his sister, Triniti. Their funeral is going to be held tomorrow. And we`ve actually learned their mother has been barred from attending the funeral and a judge actually denied a special request to have a private visitation for her so that she could say good-bye to her children. That`s the latest.GRACE: Well, I think she had plenty of time to say good-bye while they were out in her car for about, let`s just say, eight hours in the stifling heat! Now -- now, hold on. Here we go. Second verse, same as the first. The defense is already bringing in psychiatrists to try and develop an insanity defense.Let me go straight to Bethany Marshall, psychotherapist and author. Bethany, give it to me straight. And remember, you haven`t been hired by the defense, all right? This is a mom that worked her shift normally at work, no indication of mental illness, leaves the kids locked in the car, when she couldn`t -- didn`t try, I don`t know, or couldn`t get -- a baby- sitter, then comes home, bathes them, clothes them, goes out to Arby`s, and according to this police investigation report, calls an ex and says, I killed my babies. Now, where`s the insanity?BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: OK. Well, the fact that she called the ex and said, I killed my babies, means that she does know right from wrong. Here`s what I would be evaluating for. You have to look at socio- economic status. She was probably terrified to not show up for work, afraid of losing her job...GRACE: Wait. Did you just you tell me insanity depends on your socio-economic status?MARSHALL: No. No, no, no. That`s not what I said. I said...GRACE: Because I would have been crazy working in law school working those three jobs.MARSHALL: Hey, no, what I said was the fact that she called her ex says that she does know right from wrong. She called her ex and said, I killed my babies. That`s not insanity. This is something a little different, fear of losing her job. I would wonder if you have an ultra- conforming personality, panic, low ego strength, and I would want to do some psych testing to see if she has problems in the frontal lobe because people...GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!MARSHALL: What that means, this is the part of the brain that`s the center of higher reasoning. And people who have problems in that area, when they panic, they cannot engage in linear causal or cause-and-effect thinking. So such as, How am I going to feed my babies? What`s going to happen if they need to go to the bathroom, if they need food, that kind of stuff.


http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0708/03/ng.01.html