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NANCY GRACE

Nine-Year-Old Girl "Run to Death" as Punishment

Aired February 23, 2012 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Birmingham suburbs. A 9-year-old girl sneaks a candy bar on the way home on the school bus and she fibs about it to her stepmom and grandmom. Bombshell tonight. This takes evil stepmother to a whole new level.

Nine-year-old Savannah`s dad, stationed in Pakistan, races home when he learns his little girl lying in the ICU on life support. Why? Mommy and Grandma forced the little girl to run laps around and around the house as they sit inside on the sofa, run laps until she literally drops dead. Over a candy bar?

Let`s see. Now, in that jurisdiction, death penalty is only lethal injection or electrocution. But maybe there`s a special exception for Stepmommy and Grandma. Shouldn`t they be run to death?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This all started with 9-year-old Savannah Hardin eating a candy bar that she wasn`t supposed to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unnecessary act, taking of a candy bar, turns into an all-day marathon, so to speak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Savannah`s grandmother made Savannah run around the outside this house for three hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just collapsed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was so dehydrated that her sodium level and electrolytes had dropped to point that, really, her 65-pound frame reminded them of a marathon runner who had gone through an entire race without any water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could see Savannah being run in the yard, being punished. And this went on for approximately three hours. A 9-year-old child is actually run to death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight: She takes evil Stepmommy to a whole new level. Stepmom and Grandma force a 9-year-old little girl to run laps around and around the house, while they sit on the sofa, until she literally drops dead. And it`s all over a candy bar.

We are taking you live -- joining us is Jonathan Hardison, CNN affiliate WBRC. Jonathan, what happened?

JONATHAN HARDISON, WBRC (via telephone): Well, Nancy, here`s what investigators are telling us. Last Friday (ph) afternoon about 3:00 o`clock, 9-year-old Savannah Hardin comes home from elementary school with her grandmother. She was fine when she left school.

She gets back to her house, and that`s when investigators say the grandmother discovered that at some point -- we`re not sure exactly when this was. Maybe it was Friday, maybe it was the day before. The grandmother found out that Savannah had had a candy bar. Now, she was not supposed to have chocolate, according to the grandmother, 46-year-old Joyce Garrard, because Savannah had a bladder condition that they believed chocolate could exacerbate or make worse.

So to punish her, according to investigators, Joyce Garrard began making her grandchild run around the house. And this continued, they say, for about three hours until she collapsed into a seizure about 6:45. That`s when her stepmom, 26-year-old Jessica Hardin -- who, by the way, at the time was nine months pregnant -- called 911 and says, My stepdaughter`s having a seizure.

Medics come out to the scene in rural Etowah County, northeast of Birmingham, take her to a local hospital. They decide she`s in bad enough condition, they`re going to airlift her to Children`s Hospital in Birmingham. And that is where she died at noon on Monday.

Now, add to this that investigators believe 26-year-old Jessica Hardin, the stepmom, should be charged with felony murder because they say she wasn`t really instigating this, but she was the primary caretaker and should have stepped in...

GRACE: Right.

HARDISON: ... to stop this before it happened.

GRACE: And when you say primary caretaker, you`re right. Jonathan Hardison joining us in Birmingham. The dad was stationed overseas in Pakistan, right?

HARDISON: Robert Hardin, we`re told, was a government contractor who`d been working overseas. The sheriff told us yesterday he had to hop eight separate planes back here, and he only arrived at his daughter`s bedside about four hours before he was forced to make the decision to pull her off of life support, and that`s when she died.

GRACE: To Michael Board, WOAI. Michael, what more can you tell me?

MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI: Well, right now, both Jessica Hardin and the grandmother, Joyce Garrard, are facing murder charges. But we`re told those charges could be upgraded. They could face even more serious charges.

And we`re also told that CPS investigators have now become involved in the investigation to figure out the living conditions, and going forward, what`s going to happen not only to the family but also to their two other children.

GRACE: We are live and taking your calls. A 9-year-old girl sneaks a candy bar, one candy bar on the school bus on her way home, and fibs to her stepmom and grandma about it. And this is her blood grandmother. This is her father`s mother.

And these two women sit on the sofa and watch the little girl run around and around and around, and physically go out and force her to keep going when she tries to stop, until the 9-year-old little girl drops dead.

Daddy races home from Pakistan to find his little girl on life support. Can you imagine? And then he has to make the decision, as the parent, to unplug the life support on this little girl, literally run to death.

Out to Stacey Newman, our producer on the story. What was the alleged bladder ailment the little girl had?

STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, what we`ve heard is she had a -- what was called bladder reflux. And essentially, that is in a normal flow of the urine from your bladder back up to the tubes that connect your kidneys to your bladder. So what we heard is, is that this chocolate, her eating anything like chocolate, would be an irritant for this bladder reflux. And that is why her grandmother and stepmother were angry that she lied about eating this candy bar on the school bus.

GRACE: To Dr. Bill Lloyd, board-certified surgeon and pathologist. I`ve heard of the bladder issue. But isn`t it true about one third of children with bladder issues have this type of problem? Is it deadly if you have a candy bar?

DR. BILL LLOYD, SURGEON AND PATHOLOGIST: It`s not deadly, Nancy, it`s simply a nuisance, that children who have bladders that are sensitive to chocolate get into trouble with incontinence, perhaps at bedtime, perhaps even during the day. So there`s frustration on the part of caregivers having to look after a child who wets their underpants.

GRACE: Wait! I`m starting to see the picture now, Dr. Lloyd, because I have seen parents go ballistic when their child wets their pants or they wet the bed at night, all these parents who force the children to be potty trained at a very, very early age. What, they can`t change a diaper? They can`t change the sheets on the bed, Dr. Lloyd? Is it that bad?

LLOYD: Nancy, this takes corporal punishment to a brand-new level. This was a 9-year-old girl. She only weighed 65 pounds. And the parents, the grandmother and the stepmother, sentenced her to death by making her run for three hours in the Alabama afternoon sun around the house until she collapsed!

GRACE: Joining me right now from Gadsden, Alabama, Natalie Barton. She is with the Etowah County sheriff`s office. Natalie, thank you for being with us. Right now, the stepmother and the grandmother are being held on what charges?

NATALIE BARTON, ETOWAH COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): They are currently being held on murder charges.

GRACE: And what are -- what is the mode of murder? Because in any murder indictment, you have to say they`re shot to death, they`re stabbed to death, they`re bludgeoned to death, they`re -- asphyxiation. What is the charge? What is the mode of murder in the charges against the stepmom and the grandmother.

BARTON: This is felony murder on aggravated child abuse.

GRACE: Natalie Barton, I understand. Unleash the lawyers. Joining me out of New York, family law attorney Sue Moss, out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, defense attorney Renee Rockwell, defense attorney Peter Odom.

OK, Sue, weigh in.

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Who punishes their kid like they`re Forrest Gump? Can you imagine how afraid this 9-year-old was, that even when her electrolytes were down, even when she was dehydrated, she still continued running probably because she was so afraid of that stepmother and that grandmother that she was too afraid to stop! I bet when they dig, they`re going to see a whole house full of horrors!

GRACE: You know, Renee Rockwell, I can hardly stand to put the twins in time-out, which usually lasts for about 45 seconds, much less running a child to death. And Renee, it`s not like it`s not premeditated because they sat there on the sofa, watching the little girl go around and around and around an around, even going out intermittently and physically forcing her to continue.

I want to hear your defense, Renee. I can`t wait to hear this.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, you`ve got two people charged, and there are two separate dynamics here. You`ve got the grandmother making the child run, and you`ve got the mother, the stepmother, who`s in charge of the child, not stopping the grandmother and not taking care of the child.

GRACE: Yes, I already know the facts, Renee. I`m asking what`s your defense?

ROCKWELL: What I see here, Nancy, is not a trial. I see the prosecutors going to one them to get them to testify against the other one. This is not going to be a trial, Nancy. This is not what the state needs to waste resources on to try two women...

GRACE: Put her up! Put her up!

ROCKWELL: ... to try two women for the charge of murder.

GRACE: Let me...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: can you see your monitor, Renee? Can you see the picture of this little girl right below you?

ROCKWELL: I see it.

GRACE: No, no. Look at the 9-year-old little girl. Now, keep looking at her. Don`t look away. Now, could you repeat, as you look at the 9-year-old little girl, it`s not worth the state`s resources? Let me hear you say it, it`s not worth...

ROCKWELL: What I said, Nancy...

GRACE: ... the state`s resources.

ROCKWELL: ... is that in this...

GRACE: No, keep looking!

ROCKWELL: ... particular case, you`re going to have the prosecutors going to one party...

GRACE: No! No, no!

ROCKWELL: ... to testify against the other party.

GRACE: You said they don`t want...

ROCKWELL: This is not going to be a trial.

GRACE: ... to waste the state`s resources. That is what...

ROCKWELL: Over a murder trial, Nancy.

GRACE: ... you said. Do I need to play it back for you?

ROCKWELL: Nancy...

GRACE: You can`t even bring...

ROCKWELL: ... it`s a murder trial.

GRACE: ... yourself to say it again, can you?

ROCKWELL: I say it again.

GRACE: OK, Sue Moss...

ROCKWELL: This is not a case...

GRACE: ... let`s hear your response to that.

ROCKWELL: ... that needs to go to trial.

MOSS: Oh, forget -- how about -- look at the next 9-year-old child who`s going to die because her parents have committed such acts of child endangerment, aggravated child endangerment! How many other 9-year-olds have to die until we take this problem seriously!

GRACE: OK, you know, Peter Odom, I happen to know that you have two wonderful children, including a beautiful girl, Shelby (ph). Now, let me just see if you can form the words "not worth the state`s resources." Let`s hear your defense.

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, that`s not an argument that I would make, but I will tell you that this was clearly not something that these two women intended. How is the state ever going to prove in a murder charge that they intended for this child to die?

GRACE: Oh, I can answer that!

ODOM: What they did -- what they did was terrible...

GRACE: I can answer that for you, if you`re serious about the question...

ODOM: Oh, I`m dead serious, Nancy.

GRACE: ... if you really want to hear the answer. There`s two ways to prove this case, under malice or premeditated murder or under felony murder. As Natalie Barton has just pointed out, that`s the charge right now. But I would go for murder one and seek the death penalty. And I`ll tell you why.

ODOM: Never happen.

GRACE: Murder -- as I was saying, premeditation under the law, not in your mind, can be formed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. And these women sat there on the sofa and watched her run for three hours.

Also, we know the law presumes the natural consequences of your act. You throw down a piece of china on a cement floor, the law assumes you mean to break it. You run a 9-year-old little girl for three hours, with no water and no break, the law assumes you mean to kill her. Do you agree, Sue Moss?

MOSS: Absolutely! And that`s not only the basis of intent, it`s also very easy to prove felony murder law here because, certainly, this is aggravated child endangerment. That`s a no-brainer.

GRACE: We are live, bringing you the latest in the death of a 9-year- old little girl. Her little neighbor had just asked her to be his Valentine and she said yes. Tonight, Stepmommy and Grandma behind bars for running her to death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An Alabama stepmom is behind bars tonight for punishing a little girl to death. Stepmom Jessica Mae (ph) Hardin was thrown in jail, along with the little girl`s grandmother, after the two forced 9-year-old Savannah Hardin to run until she couldn`t take another step.

Running non-stop for three hours was their idea of punishment for Savannah after she admitted eating chocolate on the bus ride home from school. Tonight, Savannah`s so-called caretakers wait in a cable TV- equipped jail with a bed, sink, access to board games, a common area and recreation room while the little girl`s father makes plans to lay her to rest, her stepmom and grandmother now charged with murder, each held on $500,000 bail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A very tragic situation, a very, you know, unnecessary act. You know, from what we can tell, the taking of a candy bar turned into an all-day marathon, so to speak, type, physical PT-type exercise until the point in time where she just collapsed. And we`re very disturbed by that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Take a look at this 9-year-old little girl. How many people in America alone would love to have a beautiful girl like this? I only pray that my little girl Lucy grows into a fine young girl like this.

She apparently loved everything that was offered to her in that area, there in the Birmingham area. She loved school. She loved going to church. She loved singing. She loved talking on the phone. Just always known as happy-go-lucky.

She had a very common bladder ailment, bladder reflux. She snuck a candy bar on the school bus on the way home. Can I tell you how many times I look at my son, John David, and he will have chocolate or sugar all around his mouth. And instead of being angry, I usually laugh.

Dr. Bill Lloyd, when I think about what the girl went through as her stepmother -- and oh, yes, there`s problems with the stepmother`s history you haven`t even heard about, Dr. Lloyd, where the father had called (ph) her under investigation for the way she treated children before. I`m going to get to that in a minute.

But how do you die from low electrolytes? I don`t understand that. A lot of us aren`t even sure what electrolytes are. We`re just lawyers, Dr. Lloyd. Help me out.

LLOYD: As always, Nancy, you help us focus on the truth of these stories. This young girl was not a conditioned athlete. She was sentenced to death through overexertion. Continuously running burns a lot of energy in your body, and you burn a lot of fluid, as well. If you don`t replenish that fluid, you become dehydrated.

Now, here`s the key. Wherever water goes, so goes the sodium. So if your water is dropping down, becoming dehydrated from running, then your sodium levels go down. Who cares? Sodium is essential for a proper heart rate. And if your sodium drops too low, then you go into a cardiac arrhythmia. So you`re dehydrated, your metabolism is all messed up, your sodium is low, and your heart goes crazy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Common sense tells you you stepped over that line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stepmother, investigators say, is being charged because she was the primary caretaker and should have stepped in to stop this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Physical PT-type exercise until the point in time where she just collapsed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was in this yard just behind me where investigators say Savannah Hardin spent some of her last moments in conscious thought as she was allegedly run around this yard, disciplined at the hands of her own grandmother.

When Savannah came home from school about 3:00 o`clock, her grandmother learned that she had eaten a candy bar that she wasn`t supposed to. And so to discipline her, investigators say, that grandmother made her run around this house for what witnesses say was about three hours straight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: A 9-year-old little girl just in the 3rd grade. Can you imagine her getting up that morning and putting on her little clothes and going off to school and coming home? And somebody offers her a candy bar on the school bus. And it`s a big treat because she has a very common disorder. It`s called bladder reflux and she`s not supposed to have candy bars. But on that day she had one. And then she fibbed to her stepmother and her grandmother about it.

I guess they didn`t want to bother with possibly changing her sheets that night if she urinated in the bed overnight. I guess it was too much trouble for them. So what did they do? Instead of talking to her about what a candy bar could do to her tummy, they make her run and run and run and run until she`s dead.

We are taking your calls. Matt Zarrell, it`s not the first time Stepmommy has had a problem raising children, is it.

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): No, Nancy, it`s not. In fact, Savannah`s father, Robert Hardin, had actually filed for divorce against Jessica Hardin a few years ago. They later dismissed -- they both dismissed the claim.

But in the claim, he says that his wife was not only bipolar and had alcoholic tendencies, but he alleges that he believes his son ingested a possible poisonous substance while in the care of his mother. The child was actually flown to a children`s hospital and had to use -- they had to use charcoal with sorbitol to get the substance out of the child`s body.

DHS actually investigated, gave custody of the child back to the father. Now, one thing I should note, Nancy. This is the other child. This is Savannah`s half-brother that was the victim in that case.

GRACE: OK, Matt Zarrell, you`re telling me that the father had already had this new wife under investigation for allegedly giving the 3- year-old son some kind of poisonous substance where they had to make him eat charcoal at the hospital to vomit it up?

ZARRELL: Yes, that`s correct, Nancy.

GRACE: And what did you say the substance was?

ZARRELL: It was charcoal with sorbitol was put into the minor child`s body. That is from the affidavit of the father in the divorce documents.

GRACE: We are taking your calls. We are live in the Birmingham suburbs area. This little girl, 9 years old, little Savannah, literally run to her death by who? Stepmommy!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This all started with 9-year-old Savannah Hardin (ph) eating a candy bar she wasn`t supposed to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unnecessary act of a candy bar, turned into an all day marathon, so to speak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Savannah`s grandmother made her run around the outside of the house for three hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just collapsed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was so dehydrated and her sodium level and elect electrolytes had dropped to the point that her 65 pound frame reminded them of a marathon runner who had gone through an entire race without anywhere water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could see savannah being run into yard be punished. And this went on for an approximate three hours. A 9-year-old child is actually run to death.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. A 9-year-old little girl literally ran to death after she sneaks a candy bar on a school bus. This is not the first time this stepmother who takes evil stepmother to a whole new level has been suspected of abusing a child.

To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. Mark, how many thousands if not millions of people in this country alone would love to adopt a little girl like this and love her and raise her and take care of her.

Mark, I don`t know if you saw this complaint for divorce, the father filed. He claimed the stepmother -- and this is the mother of his 3-year- old son, and she just had another baby, who I might add they`ve all been taken away from her, is mentally unstable with bipolar, won`t take her meds, she fed the 3-year-old child, the son some type of poisonous substance. He had to get his stomach pumped and digest charcoal like you do a dog that eats chocolate at the hospital to make him vomit to get it out of his stomach, all right? So, this is not the first time step mommy has mistreated children, but daddy, who is a contractor with the U.S. military had to go to Pakistan. So he had to leave -- or did leave the children with her. And look what happened.

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT, FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: It`s a horrible situation. I think that one thing that everybody from young children to serial killers can agree on, is the powerful and seductive appeal of candy bars. One might even call them irresistible. So to punish a little girl for eating a candy bar by making her do that, run around the house nor three hours, in my mind is nothing short of extreme sadism. They should be nurturing, not torturing these little children, and I think there is no punishment too great for these women. They deserve whatever the law throws at them.

GRACE: And there`s another incident, Matt Zarrell. Another incident we haven`t told the viewers about where the same step mommy take the 3- year-old away from the daddy and hides him. Recall that one, Matt?

MATT ZARELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes, I do have it from the documents, Nancy. In August of 2010 the defendant who is the mother left the minor child in the middle of the night, had not returned. They refused to tell him where they were. Eventually they were able to find them, but they left out state. They had family and friends in different states. And he was very concerned that at any moment she could run off with a child again. And that was part of the divorce complaint.

But one thing I should note, Nancy, is that him and the wife both jointly dismissed the divorce complaint about five months after it was filed.

GRACE: Stacey Newman, I understand that neighbor wants the little girl take in the hospital started putting two and two together and calling police. What can you tell me about what neighbors observed and the 911 call?

STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, actually, we have reports that at least one neighbor did see this girl running around, but assumed maybe she was playing, because he didn`t see anybody out there coercing her to run, giving her verbal commands to run. But, I think upon seeing this girl for a few hours still running they started to call police.

Remember this girl was running like a marathon runner for three straight hours, and it wasn`t until she collapsed that the stepmother called 911, EMT`s arrived she was unresponsive, Nancy, and having seizures.

GRACE: To Natalie Barton, the PIO, public information officer at Etowah County Sheriff`s office. Miss Barton again, thank you for being with us.

How is it alleged that they forced her to continue running when she would try to stop? What would they allegedly do Ms. Barton?

NATALIE BARTON, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, ETOWAH COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): It`s alleged that the grandmother was being an encourager?

GRACE: In what way?

BARTON: She was saying move it, move it, move it.

GRACE: The grandmother? The blood grandmother, right?

BARTON: That`s correct.

GRACE: Now Natalie, right now, they are charged with felony murder, which is very simply put when a death occurs during a felony. For instance, two guys go in to rob a bank, they don`t mean to shoot anybody. But by the time it`s over, the bank teller is dead. That is the felony murder. They intend to commit a robbery. And during the commission of a felony, there is a death. That`s just one example of felony murder.

Now, Natalie Barton, you are saying the charge is felony murder with the felony being aggravated assault?

BARTON: Aggravated child abuse.

GRACE: OK, aggravated child abuse. Thank you for correcting me, Natalie. What is the aggravated child abuse that`s alleged in the charge?

BARTON: Well, when you have a young person running around out in the yard, not allowing them to stop, you know, encouraging them like a drill sergeant to keep moving, that young body simply could not take it. That is child abuse, she overstepped her lines.

GRACE: And Natalie, what was the step mommy doing all this time?

BARTON: That is currently under investigation. We do know that she was on the same property as the time of this incident.

GRACE: Probably having chips on the sofa.

To psychoanalyst and author of "Jail Breakers," Bethany Marshall. Bethany, you know, just when I think I`ve heard it all, I hear about these two loans outside of Birmingham running a beautiful 9-year-old girl to death. You know, it`s just too bad that all Alabama offers is lethal injection and electrocution.

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR, JAIL BREAKS: You know what, Nancy? I wouldn`t leave a potted plant with this family, let alone a 9- year-old child. I mean, you have grandmother who`s a malicious, hateful sadist. I know what she was doing when that little girl was running around the yard, she was taking great pleasure and satisfaction at seeing the little girl suffer. You have bipolar mommy, who has the history of poisoning a 3-year-old. So, this person has a history of using a child as a pawn to get back at her husband.

And then you have the husband who dismisses the divorce charges, so he completely overlooks his mother`s sadism and his wife`s child abuse. So that he can do and do his job and relegate the care of the children to these two women.

You can`t tell me that sadistic grandmother wasn`t sadistic to her own son when he was growing up, so he knew this about his mother. Father knew his mother was a sadist. Father knew the wife was bipolar and had a history of child abuse. Father left the 9-year-old with these two women who colluded with each other. And what I think is so sad, this little girl probably had a history of being tormented by these two women. That`s what we`re going to see. How many times was she left in the cold, refused food? All rationalized because she did a bad thing.

Child abusers always tell themselves that the child is bad, greedy and selfish, and that`s how they rationalize the abuse. And that`s what we`re going to find out in this case.

GRACE: And to Lisa Lockwood, what are police investigating right now?

LISA LOCKWOOD, FORMER POLICE DETECTIVE, AUTHOR UNCOVER ANGEL: This whole entire scenario makes me completely incensed because we talk about, it takes a village to raise kids. You have neighbors who had seen this, police were allegedly called. It`s atrocious.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Horrible case here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A very tragic situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jessica Mae Hardin (ph)was charged with the murder of this girl, 9-year-old Savannah Hardin (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An Alabama stepmom is behind bars tonight for punishing a little girl to death. Stepmom, Jessica Mae Hardin was thrown in jail along with the little girl`s grandmother after the two forced 9- year-ol, Savannah Hardin, to run until she couldn`t take another step. Running nonstop for three hours was their idea punishment for Savannah, after she admitted eating chocolate on the bus ride home from school.

Tonight. Savannah`s so-called caretakers wait in cable TV at jail with a bed, sink, access to board games a common area and recreation room while the girl`s father makes plans to lay her to rest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: A 9-year-old girl outside the Birmingham area literally ran to death. No, not by a convicted felon, not by a stranger, by her own stepmother and blood grandmother. Daddy`s station overseas in Pakistan, trying to make a living while this happens at home. But, he had warning. And divorce filed refined.

He alleges mommy`s bipolar and won`t take her meds, and not only that, that she poisoned the 3-year-old little brother and hid him away from daddy. That divorce case was then dropped five months later by both parties. So, we see all the signals, all the warnings there that this step mommy is unsafe. Both step mommy and grand mommy behind bars tonight.

Out to the lines, Renee in Alabama. Hi, Renee. What`s your question?

RENEE, CALLER, ALABAMA: Yes, I was calling to see, when a new baby was born, was that baby taken away at birth?

GRACE: Renee? You`re right a new baby has been born. The baby was born with guards outside the hospital room. There is a safe plan in place for the baby and the 3-year-old little boy since mommy made the 9-year-old run herself until she literally drops dead over a candy bar.

Out to the lines. Bianca in California. Hi dear, what`s your question.

BIANCA, CALLER, CALIFORNIA: Hi, Nancy, how are you? Congrats on your babies and I`m telling you, there should be more people like you. Just basically, I was telling the gentleman, I retired from investigations, and at my time when I was working, the reason being that people got away with hurting children was because the news media wasn`t allowed to do a lot of coverage.

Now, you know, there`s no excuse for it. People saw this little girl running and they did nothing, and I just -- my comment was, you know, what can we do to inform our society that we need to put a stop to this? Follow the legal avenues that we have, the resources. And once and for all put our stuff down in our community and say, enough. You know, children are dying right and left.

GRACE: You know what, let`s tell that to Marc Klaas, president and founder Klaaskids Foundation. What if anything can we do? And you can`t blame it on the neighbors, because yes they saw her running around the house, but they didn`t realize what was happening.

KLAAS: Well, it`s a systemic problem. I mean, the children really have no rights in our society. The parents are always deferred to whenever there`s any kind of tension with the missing child. The biological parents are always presumed to be nurturing and presumed to be correct.

And I think we see so many times, particularly on your show, Nancy, that this, in fact is not the case. If there are sadists out there, there are these bipolar people out there that are not taking their medication. There are people that are causing harm to children, yet they are consistently given access back to those kids. We saw it with Josh Powell. We see it with this case. We see it with so many other cases we`ve covered. And I think that we need to put the priority -- we need to prioritize the children over the rights of the parents often times. And if we do that, and if we create new laws, then I believe we can probably go a long ways toward protecting these very endangered kids.

GRACE: Sue Moss, Renee Rockwell, Peter Odom.

Renee Rockwell, please give me one reason this stepmother and grandmother should not face the Alabama death penalty?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Because if they go for the death penalty, Nancy. Just like in the Casey Anthony case, there`s a great chance that the prosecution will lose the case. You`re not going to find 12 jurors to put somebody to death. You don`t know this grandmother`s education. You don`t know this mother`s mental condition. They`ll never get the death penalty. They run the risk of losing the case in its entirety.

GRACE: You know, Sue Moss. Have you ever heard defense lawyers try to rationalize not making the right decision based on a possible outcome? I mean, come on, Sue, all three of us have tried a lot of cases. If I didn`t prosecute a case I believed in, because I was worried about what the jury might do. I mean, have you to worry about what a jury`s going to do every time you try a case. Even if you think it`s a slam dunk, I mean look at tot mom and O.J.? Those looked like slam dunks too. If you stop prosecuting what you think is right, because you might not jury, you may never prosecute a case, that`s crazy.

SUE MOSS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely. If these people had a bicycle, they would have made this poor girl do a triathlon. I mean, if we don`t take crimes against children seriously, then they will continue. As Marc Klaas said, the way you combat this, is that society as a whole, and our prosecutors charge to the maximum.

GRACE: OK, what about it Odom?

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They`re supposed to charge to the maximum, but not over the maximum. There`s not a shred of evidence that these women, terrible as what they did, there is not a shred of evidence that they intended for this child to die. Without evidence that they intended the child to die, that`s not murder.

GRACE: You know what, Peter. That is very simply not the law.

ODOM: Yes, it is, Nancy.

GRACE: That`s like me holding a gun --

Sue moss let`s try to correctly explain intent. There`s a different meaning of intent under the law than the layperson intent. First, if I hold a gun to your head, Sue Moss, and shoot you, and then I go, I didn`t mean to shoot you. I just meant to scare you. B.S. The law presumes the natural consequences your act, correct?

MOSS: Absolutely. The only intents that they need to prove is that these two intended to do aggravated child endangerment. Once you hit that barrier, then you`re good, because of the felony murder rule. If somebody dies while a felony is being committed, that is murder.

GRACE: To Jonathan Hardison joining us from CNN affiliate WBRC. Where is step mommy and grandma tonight?

JONATHAN HARDISON, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WBRC (via telephone): They`re still in jail, Nancy. I just to ask the context. I did talk to the neighbor who saw her running around about 4:00 on Friday afternoon. He knew the family well. His granddaughter had played with her before. And so, he thought nothing evident, until he saw the ambulance come. And what he did, he thought that because Jessica Hardin who was pregnant was delivering the baby. He had no idea what was really going on inside that fence?

GRACE: What about it, Michael Board?

MICHAEL BOARD, REPORTER, WDAI NEWSRADIO: Well, it must be terrible for those neighbors to know that maybe they could have done something to stop this. You know, it must be difficult to go up to a home and knock on a door and say, I don`t think you`re raising your kids correctly.

I don`t fault the neighbors. They could have called the cops. That - - we talk about raising a child, a village raising a child, maybe those neighbors could have called the police and said, hey, something`s not going on right here. But I mean, those neighbors must feel absolutely horrible that this happened next to them. They saw what was going on and yet they didn`t help.

You also have to feel terrible for the father in this case. He was a world away. You know, Nancy. I`m sure --

GRACE: Well, you know what, we`re leaving somebody out, Michael Board.

Matt Zarell, where is the natural mommy in all of this?

ZARELL: Nancy, the mother actually live in Florida. It is our understanding the mother doesn`t have custody, hasn`t been involved in raising the child recently. She was not involved in this incident at all. We are trying to track down more information on her though.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 6:45 p.m., her stepmother calls the 911 operator asking for help because her stepdaughter as she says she`s having a seizure. Savannah Hardin was taken to a local hospital then life fight at children`s hospital to Birmingham and that`s where she passed away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Step mommy and grandma force a 9-year-old little girl to run until she drops dead over what? A candy bar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a tragic case and hard one to even begin to describe what has happened here. Let`s walk you through what we know so far about how we believe 9-year-old Savannah Hardin died again, allegedly at the hands of her own grandmother. Etowah county sheriff says Savannah came home from school about 3:00 at the house. And that`s her grandmother discovered that Savannah had eaten a candy bar on the school bus at some point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was caused to do physical exertion to the point she was dehydrated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To discipline her, investigators believed 46-year- old Joyce Garrard made her granddaughter start running around this house. And witnesses later told the sheriff`s department it went on for about three hours on end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very tragic situation. Very, you know, unnecessary act, an all day marathon so to speak type physical type, physical pt type exercise to the point in time she just collapsed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 6:45 p.m. now, Savannah`s stepmother, 26- year-old, Jessica Hardin, called 911 reporting her stepdaughter Savannah was having seizures. The sheriff`s department did not learn about this case until contacted by both, the hospital and also by some witnesses from the area who begin to tell them what they had saw and that they were concerned about what they say.

I UNIDENTIFIED MALE: can tell you that every investigator that worked this case, and I think I speak, I`ll let them answer their own questions, but me, how it affected me, and I think each one would tell you how this effects you. A 9-year-old child is actually run to death in this day and time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Let`s remember Michael McNulty, 36, Knoxville Tennessee, killed Iraq. Three bronze stars, purple heart, joint service commendation medal, three army commendation medals, four army achievement medals, buried Arlington.

Grew up playing soccer, track, cross-country, band. Leaves behind parents Ann Marie and Davis, six brothers, four serving the military. Seven sisters, widow and high school sweetheart, Paula. Children, Kyle, Katie, Rebecca, Eric. Also served Iraq.

Army master sergeant Michael McNulty, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.

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