Stephanie Lazarus — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01hi welcome to danny after dark
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4. 0:07notification
5. 0:09or a new episode
6. 0:10tonight i'll be featuring the case of
7. 0:13stephanie lazarus
8. 0:15so let's go ahead and find out more
9. 0:17let's go ahead and dive on in
10. 0:18stephanie lazarus was born in 1960 now
11. 0:23not a lot is known in the research
12. 0:24before she started her career so what
13. 0:26we're going to pick up is when she joins
14. 0:28the police force for the first two years
15. 0:31started off as a patrol officer
16. 0:33in the course of her career she became
17. 0:36involved with the dare program as one of
18. 0:38their training officers
19. 0:40for those of us from that generation
20. 0:42we certainly remember going through the
21. 0:44dare program
22. 0:46she was then treasurer for the los
23. 0:48angeles women police officers
24. 0:50association for five years
25. 0:52she helped fundraise to provide reliable
26. 0:55around-the-clock child care for parents
27. 0:58who worked on the force
28. 1:00at one point she even started her own
29. 1:02private investigation company called
30. 1:04unique investigations
31. 1:07after over 20 years of being dedicated
32. 1:10on the horse
33. 1:11she was promoted to the high profile
34. 1:14high stakes art theft detail which
35. 1:17tracked stolen art in art forgeries
36. 1:21now we're going to go back a little to
37. 1:23february 24th
38. 1:241986 a woman named sherry rasmussen was
39. 1:28a critical care nurse and lived in her
40. 1:30condominium with her new husband of
41. 1:32three months john rutin
42. 1:34john was the ex-boyfriend of stephanie
43. 1:37lazarus well that night john got home
44. 1:41and found his new wife beaten to death
45. 1:45she was shot numerous times with the
46. 1:480.38 caliber revolver
47. 1:50there were also
48. 1:52deep bite marks left by the attacker
49. 1:55on sherry's arms
50. 1:57this crime was initially viewed by
51. 2:00police as a robbery gone wrong
52. 2:03they determined that because sherry's
53. 2:04bmw vehicle was stolen sherry's family
54. 2:09was adamant they did not buy this theory
55. 2:12not from the beginning
56. 2:14the most outspoken was sherry's dad no
57. 2:18what he said was he didn't have a name
58. 2:20but he knew that one of his son-in-law's
59. 2:23ex-girlfriends had been giving sherry a
60. 2:26big problem
61. 2:28what nell told the police was quote
62. 2:32she told me that john's ex-girlfriend
63. 2:34had come to her office at the hospital
64. 2:37dressed provocatively and confronted
65. 2:40sherry about john
66. 2:42and said that if she couldn't have john
67. 2:45nobody could
68. 2:47and she said if this marriage doesn't
69. 2:49work out
70. 2:51i want you to know
71. 2:52that i'll be waiting
72. 2:54to pick up the pieces
73. 2:56and quote
74. 2:58at the time
75. 3:00sherry came home one day as well
76. 3:03and found
77. 3:04the ex-girlfriend waiting for her
78. 3:07but she wasn't just waiting for her
79. 3:10she was inside the condominium
80. 3:13she was wearing
81. 3:14her police uniform
82. 3:17and then just a few days before the
83. 3:19murder
84. 3:20sherry had told her father that the
85. 3:22ex-girlfriend had allegedly called and
86. 3:24threatened her
87. 3:26she told her father
88. 3:28she thought this ex-girlfriend police
89. 3:30officer
90. 3:31had been stalking her
91. 3:34at the time
92. 3:35sherry's father's investigations all the
93. 3:37allegations that he provided to the
94. 3:39police
95. 3:40went nowhere
96. 3:42he pleaded he begged for the department
97. 3:45to take a second look this couldn't just
98. 3:47be a robbery gone wrong
99. 3:50but it went unheeded
100. 3:52so after five years
101. 3:54he gave up
102. 3:56at the time of the initial investigation
103. 3:59all of john's ex-girlfriends had been
104. 4:00interviewed
105. 4:02so stephanie lazarus was interviewed by
106. 4:04police but she wasn't viewed a likely
107. 4:06suspect so they never pursued it
108. 4:09so the case of the murder of sherry
109. 4:11rasmussen
110. 4:13went unsolved for 23
111. 4:17years
112. 4:18now
113. 4:19we get to february 2009
114. 4:23the cold case detective squad decided to
115. 4:26reinvestigate the case the investigators
116. 4:29discovered
117. 4:30female dna from that bite mark on
118. 4:34sherry's body
119. 4:35in looking through
120. 4:37all of the suspect lists
121. 4:39they determined they had a prime suspect
122. 4:42and that prime suspect
123. 4:44is stephanie lazarus
124. 4:46they followed her for days and she
125. 4:48eventually discarded a cup in the trash
126. 4:51and they retrieved it to test it for dna
127. 4:54the detectives were able to match
128. 4:56stephanie's dna from that cup
129. 4:59to the dna found in the bite mark on
130. 5:01sherry's body
131. 5:03so they placed her under arrest on june
132. 5:055th 2009.
133. 5:07well at the time of the murder stephanie
134. 5:10had only been on the force for two years
135. 5:12she was just a patrol officer
136. 5:15so police needed to interview her they
137. 5:16needed to get more information
138. 5:19so what they
139. 5:20did
140. 5:21was stephanie was at work sitting in her
141. 5:23third floor office
142. 5:25when she was told by other police
143. 5:27officers that there was a suspect in
144. 5:29custody that might have information on
145. 5:31one of her art theft cases
146. 5:34so she left to go check in on that
147. 5:36suspect
148. 5:37in accordance with their policy
149. 5:39to get through the jail security should
150. 5:41have had to surrender her weapons prior
151. 5:43to getting into that interrogation room
152. 5:46that was planned
153. 5:47so she walks through the security point
154. 5:50again surrenders her weapons and at this
155. 5:52point she's confronted by robbery
156. 5:55homicide detectives who say
157. 5:57quote stephanie
158. 5:59we need to talk to you
159. 6:01end quote
160. 6:02so stephanie still doesn't put two and
161. 6:04two together and sits down in front of a
162. 6:07hidden camera
163. 6:08still thinking she's waiting for the
164. 6:10subject that she needs to talk about
165. 6:13about her art theft
166. 6:15now i have some quotes from the
167. 6:17interrogation of the detectives and
168. 6:18stephanie that i'm going to read
169. 6:21and as it picks up
170. 6:23you can tell when stephanie finally it
171. 6:25starts to click
172. 6:27now detectives say
173. 6:29do you know
174. 6:30john roten stephanie says yes i mean we
175. 6:33dated you know what is this about
176. 6:35detective
177. 6:36well it's relating to his wife
178. 6:39stephanie okay
179. 6:41detective
180. 6:42did you know her
181. 6:44stephanie not really
182. 6:46detective did you ever meet her
183. 6:49stephanie i don't know
184. 6:52detective you dated john how long did
185. 6:54you guys date
186. 6:56this is when it's finally starting to
187. 6:57click
188. 6:58stephanie says i mean why are you guys
189. 7:01is this something i mean you said it was
190. 7:05gonna be about art
191. 7:07i don't understand why you're talking
192. 7:09about some guy i dated a million years
193. 7:11ago
194. 7:13detectives
195. 7:14well do you know what happened to his
196. 7:16wife
197. 7:18stephanie
198. 7:19yeah i know she got killed
199. 7:22detectives
200. 7:23well one of the concerns i had as we're
201. 7:26looking at some of the notes
202. 7:28is some of sherry's friends
203. 7:32said that you and her were having
204. 7:33problems
205. 7:35because of the john situation
206. 7:37and words were being exchanged
207. 7:40and it's all relating to
208. 7:42john stephanie
209. 7:45now starts to get choked
210. 7:47she responds you know what i i
211. 7:50i just i can't say
212. 7:54detectives
213. 7:55you can't say
214. 7:57stephanie
215. 7:58no i that
216. 8:00that doesn't even ring a bell
217. 8:03finally an hour into the interrogation
218. 8:07detectives
219. 8:08they've had enough
220. 8:09so they start to ask tougher to the
221. 8:12point questions
222. 8:15detective says
223. 8:16did you ever fight with her
224. 8:19stephanie
225. 8:20you mean like we fought
226. 8:23detective
227. 8:24did you ever duke it out with her
228. 8:27stephanie
229. 8:28no i don't think so
230. 8:31detective
231. 8:32you'd remember that
232. 8:34right
233. 8:36stephanie
234. 8:37yeah
235. 8:38i would think so
236. 8:40and then she responds again
237. 8:43i mean if you guys are claiming i'm a
238. 8:46suspect
239. 8:47then you know i got a problem with that
240. 8:50i'm shocked
241. 8:52i'm really shocked that somebody would
242. 8:54blame
243. 8:56saying that i did this
244. 8:58i mean
245. 8:59we had a fight
246. 9:01and so i went and killed her
247. 9:03i mean
248. 9:04come on
249. 9:07that
250. 9:08is the end of the quotes
251. 9:10from the interview interrogation that i
252. 9:12have
253. 9:13now
254. 9:14what then happened
255. 9:16was stephanie
256. 9:18then decides she's gonna walk out of the
257. 9:20room
258. 9:21and she does
259. 9:22only to then be arrested and handcuffed
260. 9:26she was brought back into the
261. 9:28interrogation room to be read her
262. 9:31miranda rights
263. 9:32those words
264. 9:34she knows
265. 9:35all too well
266. 9:37after stephanie's arrest
267. 9:39new details emerge
268. 9:42one key piece to the puzzle
269. 9:45was missing
270. 9:47and that was the gun that was used to
271. 9:50shoot
272. 9:51sherry
273. 9:52multiple times
274. 9:54in the chest
275. 9:55well the los angeles times reported that
276. 9:59stephanie had called the santa monica
277. 10:01police department a few weeks before
278. 10:04the murder
279. 10:06to report well her car was broken into
280. 10:09by the santa monica pier
281. 10:11there were items in her car that were
282. 10:13stolen
283. 10:14a gym bag
284. 10:15money
285. 10:16clothes
286. 10:18and
287. 10:20her .38 caliber handgun
288. 10:24the police now believe
289. 10:26that she ditched the gun
290. 10:28in the pacific ocean
291. 10:31so now stephanie lazarus
292. 10:33goes to trial
293. 10:34and that trial began early 2012.
294. 10:39prosecutors believed that the motive
295. 10:42that stephanie had for the murder was
296. 10:44jealousy over sherry's relationship with
297. 10:48her ex-boyfriend john roten
298. 10:50the prosecutor stated
299. 10:52quote
300. 10:54a bite
301. 10:55a bullet
302. 10:57a gun barrel
303. 10:58and a broken heart
304. 11:00that's the evidence that will prove to
305. 11:03you
306. 11:04that defendant stephanie lazarus
307. 11:06murdered sherry mastenson
308. 11:09end quote
309. 11:10on june 9th 2009
310. 11:13stephanie appeared in court in an orange
311. 11:16jumpsuit
312. 11:17appearing distressed
313. 11:19her eyes
314. 11:21wide open
315. 11:22stephanie spoke just once
316. 11:25answering the judge
317. 11:27about the continuance
318. 11:29and said
319. 11:30quote
320. 11:31yes
321. 11:32your honor
322. 11:33end quote
323. 11:35during testimony heard prior to the
324. 11:38sentencing john rutin was there and he
325. 11:41said quote
326. 11:43the fact that sherry's death occurred
327. 11:45because she met me
328. 11:47and married me
329. 11:49brings me to my knees
330. 11:51and quote
331. 11:52john rutin
332. 11:54would finally admit
333. 11:56that he had sex
334. 11:58with stephanie after he became engaged
335. 12:01to sherry
336. 12:03he testified that he was so
337. 12:06enraged
338. 12:08and she was so upset
339. 12:10that she began to cry
340. 12:12and she begged him
341. 12:14don't get married
342. 12:16so what he did
343. 12:18was they had sex that same day
344. 12:21he said he still wanted to go through
345. 12:23with his wedding just a few weeks later
346. 12:26but he wanted his affair to end
347. 12:30the prosecutor throughout the five-week
348. 12:32trial had more than 60 witnesses testify
349. 12:36in 400 exhibits
350. 12:38were presented from the state in the
351. 12:40defense
352. 12:42on march 9th 2012
353. 12:44after a little more than only a day of
354. 12:47deliberation
355. 12:49stephanie
356. 12:50was found guilty in sherry's murder
357. 12:53first degree
358. 12:54she was later sentenced in may 2012 to
359. 12:5827 years to life in prison
360. 13:02she will be eligible for parole
361. 13:04in 2039
362. 13:08and that is the case
363. 13:10of stephanie lazarus
364. 13:13thank you for sticking around for
365. 13:15another episode of danny after dark
366. 13:18do you have a question or comment about
367. 13:20the case
368. 13:21leave it down below
369. 13:23let's be interactive
370. 13:24do you have a suggestion for a case that
371. 13:27you'd like me to cover
372. 13:29we'll leave it down below and you may
373. 13:32see it featured on an upcoming episode
374. 13:35until next time
375. 13:36remember
376. 13:38we don't live in darkness
377. 13:40darkness
378. 13:42lives in us