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Toyota, let's go places. to

2:30

dig in a little bit more,

2:32

is CBS News correspondent Jonathan Bigliati

2:35

and 48 Hours producer Meade Stone.

2:37

Welcome guys. Thanks for having us.

2:39

Good to be here. Thank you.

2:41

So a reminder to everyone, as

2:43

usual, if you haven't already listened

2:45

to the 48 hours episode, the

2:47

audio version of it, you can

2:49

find it in your podcast feet

2:51

right above this one. So go

2:54

listen and then come on back

2:56

so we can talk about it.

2:58

All right. So I think what

3:00

is particularly tragic about this case,

3:02

guys, is that it really, really

3:04

seemed preventable. It seemed like Angela

3:06

really did all the things that

3:08

you're supposed to do. She endured

3:10

months of domestic violence, and

3:12

then Angela Prichard obtained a

3:15

no-contact order against Chris Prichard,

3:17

meaning that if there was

3:20

any contact that he made

3:22

with her... It could result in

3:24

a mandatory arrest. Here's the

3:27

question, if Angela's no contact

3:29

order had been enforced in

3:31

a better way, what should

3:34

have happened with this case?

3:36

Great question, Anne-Marie. I've

3:38

covered a number of

3:40

48 hours cases. Usually,

3:42

who done it of these cases

3:44

is the mystery. As it pertains

3:46

to this story, the mystery

3:48

was... Why was it more done in

3:51

time? Everyone we spoke with from

3:53

prosecutors to David O'Brien, he's the

3:55

civil rights attorney representing Angela's family

3:58

in that lawsuit against Bellevue Police.

4:00

investigators, they all said more could

4:02

have been done. There were two no

4:04

contact orders that were issued. The first

4:07

one Angela actually lifted herself because she

4:09

wanted to give her marriage a second

4:11

chance, but then it became very clear

4:13

that the violence was only escalating. And

4:16

so she successfully requested a second no

4:18

contact order. As you mentioned, no contact

4:20

order means exactly that, no contact of

4:22

any kind. That means no text messages,

4:25

no phone calls, no emails. And yet

4:27

David O'Brien says in a 37-day window

4:29

in that period of time, Chris

4:31

Pritchard made 12 violations. Now he

4:33

was arrested once, he spent a

4:35

day in jail for that, he

4:37

was released, he was supposed to

4:39

appear in court, failed to do

4:41

so twice. There was then an

4:43

arrest warrant issued for him. Seven

4:45

days went by, no arrest was made

4:48

in time. Angela was then killed,

4:50

and it would take 24 hours after that.

4:52

to finally arrest Chris Pritchard.

4:54

And that final week of

4:56

Angela's life, the police apparently

4:59

didn't do anything to try

5:01

to find Chris Pritchard. according

5:03

to their own police records.

5:05

They were doing other things

5:07

in the town, like chaperoning

5:10

a prom and, you know,

5:12

providing an escort for a

5:14

funeral procession. There was a

5:16

loud barking dog, apparently, in

5:19

the neighborhood of the Bellevue

5:21

police made notes about these

5:23

incidents, but nowhere in their

5:25

records is there any mention

5:28

of trying to find and

5:30

arrest Chris Prichard. Because this is

5:32

what struck me when Meade and

5:34

I were in Bellevue. You drive

5:37

down that main street. We're talking

5:39

about a population of 2,500 people.

5:41

There was not a single traffic

5:44

lay. Meade points out the police

5:46

were responding to loud barking

5:48

from dogs. They had time to

5:50

respond to these calls. Indeed,

5:52

absolutely. You know, I wanted to

5:55

try to understand this case sort

5:57

of in a greater context. And

5:59

so... kind of dug into the

6:01

statistics about these types of orders,

6:04

these orders to stay away from

6:06

the victim. And one of the

6:08

things that I found is it's

6:10

really hard to get solid information.

6:12

A lot of the information about

6:14

domestic violence is old. I think

6:17

the kind of overwhelming conclusion, though,

6:19

about these types of orders is

6:21

that they can be very effective.

6:23

If they're enforced, I'm sure this

6:25

came up in your reporting as

6:27

you were talking to people. How

6:30

did they feel about the weight

6:32

of these types of protective orders?

6:34

Yeah, and David Bryan put it

6:36

very well on it. It still

6:38

sticks with me. He said a

6:40

lot of people often look at

6:42

these no contact orders as not

6:45

being worth the paper they're written

6:47

on, but in his view, they

6:49

are very valuable as long as

6:51

they are enforced, as you so

6:53

accurately mentioned. And unfortunately in this

6:55

case it just seemed like a

6:58

lot of these violations were not

7:00

enforced. I mean I know that

7:02

you were really looking into this

7:04

too because there are ramifications with

7:06

each violation comes more time spent

7:08

in jail, is that correct? Yes,

7:11

yes, I think that's one of

7:13

the tragedies in Iowa for the

7:15

first offense. It's one night in

7:17

jail, a second offense, it goes

7:19

to seven days in jail, and

7:21

it goes up from there and

7:24

you know, had Pritchard been arrested.

7:26

each time he violated the no-contact

7:28

order, you know, he would have

7:30

eventually been spending a good amount

7:32

of time behind bars. And, you

7:34

know, one would think that would

7:37

be a deterrent. You know, sometimes

7:39

victims of domestic violence, they have

7:41

been alienated from their support system

7:43

or they are embarrassed to share

7:45

what they're going through. This is

7:47

not the case with Angela. Her

7:49

family is very supportive. You know,

7:52

they basically become like protective detail.

7:54

Her sister Wendy is her shadow.

7:56

This must have had a tremendous

7:58

impact on the... family. I mean

8:00

you gotta think about it and

8:02

it's something I've been thinking about

8:04

too and it's a really good

8:06

point. Victims of domestic violence oftentimes

8:08

the hardest first step is even

8:10

recognizing you're a victim and then trying

8:13

to figure out what steps to take.

8:15

Very early on Angela with the support

8:17

of her family identified Chris Pritchard as

8:19

a problem and they took the right

8:22

steps. They went immediately to law enforcement

8:24

thinking that they would be protected. It

8:26

wasn't enough. They were living in fear.

8:28

And you mentioned it. Wendy, Buddy, who

8:31

was Angela's sister, was her shadow. Even

8:33

having Angela at one point

8:35

live with her. Unfortunately, the

8:37

one time she wasn't by Angela's

8:39

side is when Angela was attacked

8:41

and killed. And on top of all

8:43

that, you also had Angela's sons who

8:46

live in the area. who also were

8:48

dealing with their own issues with Chris

8:50

Pritchard once in saying that Chris Pritchard

8:52

would drive by the house in one

8:54

case in just one hour six times.

8:56

How he knew this, Chris Pritcher drove

8:59

a very specific truck, a jeep with

9:01

specific wheels that made a sound that

9:03

was very easy to identify. Police were

9:05

being called and included in all of

9:07

this, but the family... still had this

9:10

real sense of helplessness. The thing

9:12

is that Chris Pritchard was not

9:14

always like this. Relationships don't typically

9:16

start off like this, right? In

9:18

fact, Wendy... liked him, Wendy introduced

9:21

him to her sister, but then

9:23

he starts to take this kind

9:26

of downward spiral and we learn

9:28

in the hour that it seems

9:30

to begin once he is brought

9:33

up on charges accused of stealing

9:35

from his employer. It's $36,000, so

9:38

it's not a little bit, but

9:40

can you tell me a little

9:42

bit more about that case?

9:45

He rented equipment that

9:47

belonged to the company

9:49

he worked for to

9:51

customers and he was

9:54

requesting that they pay

9:56

him for the rentals.

9:58

So they... apparently wrote

10:00

Pritchard Checks and he kept

10:03

the money. It was a

10:05

first degree theft charge. When

10:08

that was exposed, the family

10:10

says that ultimately led to

10:12

this downward spiral and without

10:15

a job and now having

10:17

lost the respect of this

10:20

very small community, he started

10:22

to engage in drug use

10:24

and abuse methamphetamine which then

10:27

led to anger and it

10:29

only continued. according to those

10:32

sticky notes, what we call

10:34

a diary of domestic abuse

10:36

that Angela documented so well

10:39

that her sister Wendy shared

10:41

with us. Too much was

10:44

expected and put on Angela

10:46

to protect herself and ultimately

10:48

in the end, it is

10:51

her who identifies the suspect,

10:53

right? Chris shows up with

10:56

a gun at her workplace.

10:58

We want to play that

11:00

911 call, but we just

11:03

want to warn you that

11:05

this is disturbing to listen

11:08

to. Please. Hello? Get out

11:10

of here. Our customers coming

11:12

in. Please. 911. Please get

11:15

out of here. Okay, where

11:17

are you at? You

11:22

know you can put yourself

11:24

in her shoes at that

11:26

moment. You know it's just

11:28

You can't even imagine that

11:30

sort of terror and she

11:33

had the presence of mind

11:35

to call 911 in that

11:37

moment and You know she

11:39

shouted his name in the

11:41

last Split second of her

11:43

life. It wasn't just her

11:46

identifying Chris in that moment

11:48

that helped a few seconds

11:50

later you hear Chris say,

11:52

an expletive directed towards Angela

11:54

as he is standing over

11:57

her lifeless body. The profanity

11:59

that he uttered helped convince...

12:01

victim because as Angela's son,

12:03

Josh points out, that's not

12:05

a word you say after

12:08

you accidentally shoot someone. And

12:10

of course, Pritchard claimed that

12:12

the shooting was accidental and

12:14

that proved to the

12:16

prosecutors that it was

12:19

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13:29

Welcome back. So I want

13:31

to talk a little bit

13:33

more about why police were

13:35

convinced that this wasn't an

13:37

accident. Special agents in our

13:39

hour interviewed pressured three times

13:42

and each time they did

13:44

his story of the accidental

13:47

shooting changed a little bit.

13:49

The first one was Angela

13:51

pushed him, shoved him and

13:54

he fell back and the

13:56

shotgun... He had a cabinet or

13:58

something and went off. And he

14:00

had another story where he

14:02

had kicked a backpack and the

14:05

gun fell over and went

14:07

off and shot her. The medical

14:09

examiner testified that the shotgun

14:11

blast had a downward trajectory. And

14:13

in Pritchard's examples, most of

14:15

them would have had an upward

14:18

trajectory. The police tested the

14:20

gun and it was in perfectly

14:22

fine working conditions. And the

14:24

condition that Pritchard explained that the

14:26

gun just went off would

14:29

have been impossible. And prosecutors did

14:31

an incredible job showing premeditation.

14:33

So really, you had prosecutors really

14:35

detail and outline how this

14:37

whole plan really started to form

14:40

the day before the murder

14:42

took place. So you had Chris

14:44

who borrowed a truck, something

14:46

very different than the car that

14:48

he drove, which was very

14:51

recognizable, stashed that borrowed truck somewhere,

14:53

then trekked through the woods

14:55

to access the kennels at around

14:57

4 a .m. And we know

14:59

this because of security footage

15:02

outside of the kennels and then

15:04

late in wait. From that

15:06

residence to the kennels, it's about

15:08

a mile and a half,

15:10

a couple of miles. And he

15:13

left in the middle of

15:15

the night, but this would have

15:17

been a treacherous hike. It

15:19

would have been pitch black through

15:21

very, very thick woods. I

15:24

mean, this shows an incredible amount

15:26

of determination. And then, yes,

15:28

he was just waiting for her

15:30

for about four hours to

15:32

show up. He takes off into

15:35

the woods, but news of

15:37

this spreads like wildfire because Bellevue

15:39

is a small town. So

15:41

then he shows up at a

15:43

friend's house. He shows up

15:46

at Jeff Junk and his girlfriend,

15:48

Kim Klein. They're at home.

15:50

They already know what's going on.

15:53

And they just completely play

15:55

it cool. And they

15:58

invite him in and he

16:00

has. a drink, you spoke to them. I

16:02

mean, what was this like for them? I think

16:04

they were surprised. I think they were

16:06

in a state of shock, and I

16:08

think at that point they were in

16:10

a state of preservation, preserve that time

16:12

so that cops, when they felt safe

16:14

enough to contact them, could come. And

16:16

so what they did to make that

16:19

place feel safe for Chris, they invited

16:21

them in, they offered them a drink.

16:23

I think they also cooked

16:25

up some microevable pizza. sat

16:27

down. The way that Jeff

16:29

and Kim described it, they

16:31

the entire time know he

16:33

had just killed Angela Pritchard.

16:35

But Chris didn't act like

16:37

anything was off. Like it

16:40

was just a normal night

16:42

of catching up with friends.

16:44

And Kim was so, she

16:46

was so taken aback by

16:48

how surreal this all was,

16:50

she secretly snapped a photo

16:52

on her phone just to

16:54

document it as they also.

16:56

contacted police. At one point,

16:58

you had Chris Prichard, I guess

17:00

so exhausted from everything that had

17:02

happened being on the run, he

17:05

passed out in a lazy boy

17:07

reclining chair, and he was still

17:09

asleep when police eventually made their

17:11

way to the property and carried

17:13

out the arrest. Yes, and that

17:16

was quite a scene. There was,

17:18

you know, a lot of officers

17:20

and from different agencies, there was

17:22

a SWAT team that came in

17:25

and arrested him. And when they

17:27

get to the jail, there's more

17:29

body camp footage of Pritchard

17:31

being processed. And you just, you

17:34

sense that the gravity of what

17:36

he's done has hit him. Right,

17:38

he pleads not guilty to first

17:40

degree murder and robbery charges. In

17:43

February of 2024, a jury took

17:45

less than an hour to find

17:48

him guilty of both charges, and

17:50

then about a month later he

17:52

is sentenced to life in prison

17:55

without parole. But the hour does

17:57

not end there. There is a

17:59

second. court case in this

18:01

hour. Very fascinating to me,

18:03

a federal lawsuit that civil

18:06

rights attorney David O'Brien, who

18:08

mentioned a little bit earlier,

18:10

filed against the city of

18:12

Bellevue and three of the

18:14

officers who work for the

18:16

city, work for the police

18:18

department there, for failure to

18:21

arrest Chris Pritchard, leading up

18:23

to Angela's murder. At the

18:25

end of the hour, though,

18:27

we learned that the judge

18:29

overseeing this case dismisses it.

18:31

Can you tell us a

18:34

little bit more about why

18:36

this case was dismissed? You

18:38

know, the judge didn't, he

18:40

didn't buy the argument of

18:42

the state-created danger. And so,

18:44

okay, we had a slow

18:46

down. State created danger. Yes.

18:49

That's what they had to

18:51

prove. Right. That's what David

18:53

Bryan was arguing, that there

18:55

was a state created danger.

18:57

And that's a legal term,

18:59

which means that a police

19:02

force, in this case, the

19:04

Bellevue police, actually made Angela's

19:06

situation more dangerous because they

19:08

didn't enforce the no contact

19:10

order. So they're in action,

19:12

actually put Angela in greater

19:15

peril. And that's what a

19:17

state-created danger is. The judge

19:19

didn't agree. The judge also

19:21

didn't agree that there was...

19:23

sufficient evidence to prove that

19:25

the officers in Pritchard had

19:27

relationships. Dave O'Brien requested his

19:30

hearing a couple of months

19:32

later because the officers in

19:34

pre-trial filings said they, two

19:36

of them, said they had

19:38

never boarded their dogs at

19:40

the kennels. and it turned

19:43

out that Angel's family had

19:45

found receipts for the two

19:47

officers showing that they had

19:49

indeed boarded their dogs at

19:51

the kennels. Now that by

19:53

itself is not particularly important.

19:55

What's important is that they

19:58

apparently lied about this in

20:00

Anna. attempt, says O'Brien, to

20:02

conceal their relationship with Pritchard.

20:04

The defense attorneys say that

20:06

this information was not turned

20:08

over in discovery because of

20:11

a mistake that the defense

20:13

attorneys had made, not their

20:15

clients. And this was considered,

20:17

and it did not change his

20:19

decision. The judge in his ruling,

20:22

he said there's no evidence

20:24

to indicate that they're friends. And

20:26

Marie police have what's known as

20:28

it's qualified immunity and long story

20:30

short, that sets a really high

20:32

bar to convict police. You need

20:34

to show an action and in

20:36

a situation like that, it almost

20:38

comes down to having a text

20:40

message where a police officer is

20:42

saying, we're friends with Chris, let's

20:44

not arrest him. Obviously that did

20:46

not exist. So what's next

20:48

for this case? Angela's family said

20:51

they are appealing the case

20:53

to the Eighth Circuit in

20:55

St. Louis. It's a process

20:57

that will lengthen their legal

20:59

journey for about another year.

21:01

What about Angela's family? How

21:03

are they doing? When we spoke

21:05

with Wendy, there was still

21:07

this tremendous sense of guilt

21:10

for not being there to do

21:12

more to protect. She said that

21:14

she was really struggling to live

21:16

with that guilt. Though she did

21:18

say the one thing that she

21:20

was proud of was that until

21:22

the very end, Angela fought

21:25

and fought. And she did not give

21:27

up. And unfortunately, and

21:29

why this case is so tragic,

21:31

she was so vocal, she fought

21:34

for herself for so many months,

21:36

and it was only in her

21:38

death that her words... Finally, brought

21:40

some amount of justice. From that last

21:42

word, Chris and the 911 call to

21:44

all of the written words on those

21:47

sticky notes, she fought for herself. It

21:49

wasn't enough to save her life, but

21:51

it was enough to bring her killer

21:53

to justice. Well said, Jonathan. Very well

21:56

said. As you guys know, we talk

21:58

about justice. There's never really... sort

22:00

of of in a case like

22:02

this. like this, should know that there

22:04

are a ton of resources out

22:06

there. Everyone should know about the

22:08

National the Violence Domestic And if you

22:10

go to their website, if you

22:12

call the number you call the number eight hundred, seven,

22:14

nine, nine, are all sorts of options

22:17

available for you. So you do

22:19

not have to live in terror.

22:21

you, so you Jonathan to want to thank

22:23

you guys so much. and

22:25

you for having us. to

22:27

thank you. Thank you. much. Thank you.

22:29

If you you like this series,

22:31

Postmortem, please rate and review

22:33

and on Apple on and follow

22:35

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22:37

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22:39

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22:46

listening. Podcast. Thanks again for listening.