Nancy Guthrie's Lead Investigator Got Referred For WHAT?!

**Tony Brueski** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke.

**Tony Brueski** (0:08)
Let's flip it around. Same case, Nancy Guthrie, same evidence, but this time we're hunting for the holes, and the investigation has left plenty. The crime scene was so loose that a reporter, Brian Anton, and his photographer walked right up to the front door because they could, because he was waved over, because he's a great reporter and a wonderful reporter, and there was nobody saying don't, and there was no tape up saying don't. The cadaver dog searches got shut down early. The sheriff who ran the whole thing has a perjury referral sitting on the state attorney general's desk. So the question here is ugly but fair. Did the investigation already wreck the case against whoever ends up being blamed, guilty or not?
That's what I want to dive into deeper from a defense perspective. Not the horror of the DA and the prosecutor going this is going to be fun. But from the defense perspective, how much of a cakewalk might this be? Or not? I mean, the sheriff who ran this swore under oath, Nanos, he'd never been suspended as a cop. Then records came out showing he was more than once. His own county referred him to the AG for perjury. Obviously, not at all connected to Nancy Guthrie. This happened decades ago. But if you're the defense, what does that give you about everything in this case? If anything?

**Eric Faddis** (1:29)
Oh, gosh. If I'm defense, I'm having a field day with that. I'm starting my opening statement with something like, horrible judgment, fatal mistakes, perjury. You think I'm talking about the defendant? No, I'm talking about the police in this case. It is so glaring in terms of how it affects the credibility of the investigation. That even if they do reach a suspect, even if they do find a body, I think that there are so many chasms in this investigation into which reasonable doubt can fit.
I think that the defense will be very well-postered.

**Robin Dreeke** (2:10)
So, Eric, on the same sad track, they made a number of SWAT raids early on as well. Does that play into the lack of credibility of law enforcement that the defense will use or does that get ignored? Like how does that play into it as well also?

**Eric Faddis** (2:29)
SWAT raids of the Guthrie house?

**Robin Dreeke** (2:31)
No. So they thought they had someone and they rolled out lights, sirens, code one down the street to the house. They're like, what? Who are you? Who are the Guthrie's?
And in other words, they went to houses with some real leads. Does that play into their credibility also or is that just kind of par for the course for the types of cases like this?

**Eric Faddis** (2:58)
Yeah, for sure. And I think we're going to get into that even more deeply. But one thing I'd say is to the jury, when law enforcement marshaled all of these personnel and they got all these SWAT vehicles and they're going to this house and they really believe they got the guy. You know what?
They believe so much that they had them then.
They have that same belief now for this guy. They were patently wrong then. They're patently wrong now. You cannot believe any sort of position they're taking in terms of who they think did this.

**Tony Brueski** (3:30)
Okay, let's do that again. I want to put a spotlight on you. And then I want you to have like a staff or something. And then let's be real dramatic. Let's do that line one more time.
That's good. Because yes, I like that. I mean, that's true. I mean, it seems very, very scary for whoever did this. If in fact, they do catch the right person, they have fairly good odds here.
The reporter, Brian, who walked right up to Nancy's front door because he could, Internet sleuths were wandering the property. The crime scene was not secured in the very early hours, the very key moments where you need it to be secured. What the hell was going on in those conversations between Nanos, between the DA as they're looking at this? I mean, I can't imagine anybody with any sort of sense is like, oh, this looks like it's going swimmingly. I mean, what the hell do you think is happening on the legal side and the law enforcement side? It feels like there's quite a disconnect. I know you said, you know, in a lot of times, you got each other's cell phone numbers, you're working hand in hand. Does this feel like this is a hand in hand operation with the local DA in Nanos?