Forensic Files (1996–…): Season 5, Episode 17 - Journey to Justice - full transcript
Features the first case in the United States where video animation was considered admissible to show to a jury. Six-year-old Nicole Rae Walker was walking with other kids when a pickup truck with a camper top struck them. Nicole was killed. Through technology and the outrage of the community, her killer was found.
-Just after dark
on a warm summer
evening, five children were
walking home along this road.
Suddenly, out of
nowhere, a pickup truck
headed towards them.
[honking]
[screaming]
-Three of the children were hit.
One was killed.
The driver sped away.
Investigators called on
state-of-the-art science
to reconstruct the crime
in hopes of learning how
the accident happened and
the identity of the driver.
-Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, is one
of America's most
popular resort towns.
The beach and
sunny weather bring
in almost 7 million
tourists each year.
And the city is also
home to 1 and 1/2
million full-time residents.
The Walker family settled
into this working class
neighborhood, one
they believed was
safe from crime and violence.
The Walkers youngest
child, six-year-old Nicole,
loved the neighborhood because
of the large number of children
who all played together.
-She didn't like to smile.
She used to tell people,
I don't know how to smile.
You'd tickle her and
say, see, you can smile.
It'd always be a cockeyed smile.
Her glasses would
always be cockeyed.
So I used to call her my
kooky cockeyed little one.
-Just after dark
on June 23, 1992,
Nicole Walker was
walking home with four
other neighborhood children.
It was just after a rainstorm,
and they were walking along
the side of this road where
there are no sidewalks.
When they got to the front
of this apartment building,
there was a large puddle of
water left from the rainstorm.
Michelle and Gina Vitello were
walking with Nicole that night.
They were 10 years
old at the time.
-I'm walking in the street,
and there's a big puddle,
so we wanted to go
through it so that we
don't have to be in the street.
And Nicole didn't want to walk
through it because she didn't
want to get sick because
she had no shoes on.
So Michelle picked
her up, and we
started walking
through the puddle.
-As we were walking
in this puddle,
I had Nicole in my hands.
Everybody was telling
me to watch out.
And that was about
all I remember.
-And I see this car,
this big-- a bunch
of lights just coming
straight at us.
And I just yell, watch out!
-By the time they saw the
vehicle, it was too late.
Nicole Walker and Michelle
Vitello were both hit.
-I went over to check on Nicole,
and I seen blood coming out
of her mouth and
her ears, and I--
I knew she wasn't
going to make it.
-One of the kids ran
to Nicole's home.
SUZANNE WALKER: There was
the knock at the door,
and it was Joel.
There was no color in
his face, and his eyes
were so bugged out of his head.
He was just-- you could see
the terror, the fright, just
saying, the girls were all hit.
The girls were all hit.
-The children were
rushed to the hospital.
Michelle suffered
a broken leg, two
broken wrists, and
a lacerated liver.
Nine-year-old Brooke Mansey
suffered a fractured shoulder
and facial injuries that
required a dozen stitches.
Six-year-old Nicole died shortly
after arriving at the hospital.
-Some internal surgeons came
in, and the conclusion was, no,
she-- that she
doesn't have a chance.
And I begged and pleaded
even for 1% chance,
and they told me, no.
There's no chance.
-Nicole died of severe
trauma to the head
and massive internal injuries.
A witness said it was a man
driving a green pickup truck
with a white camper top
which sped away quickly, ran
this red light, and disappeared.
MICHELLE VITELLO:
I VITELLO: was just
wondering why-- how can
somebody, like, just hit people
and just keep going
without even caring, like,
what was going to happen
to them and just left
us-- just left us
to die and-- it's
just a-- just-- scary feeling.
I didn't know if they were ever
going to find them or what.
-Investigators were hoping
that science could identify
the pickup truck and the driver.
-How could you hit five
little kids and keep on going?
-Suzanne Walker was
grief-stricken and angry
over the death of
her daughter Nicole.
-How could you do that?
How could anybody hit
kids and keep on going?
Just to know you laid them flat
out in the middle of a road
and by-- you had to know.
-Detective Bruce Babcock,
a member of an elite team
of accident reconstructionists,
was called to the scene.
Just before the
accident, witnesses
said a green truck swerved
off the road, knocking
over some trash cans, then
stopped in a nearby cul de sac.
A few minutes later, the
truck started up again,
heading back out
of the neighborhood
on the same road on
Southwest 33rd Avenue.
As it approached the
apartment building,
it veered off the
road into the puddle,
hitting three of
the five children,
killing six-year-old
Nicole Walker.
Witnesses said the
truck picked up
speed after fleeing
the accident.
Bruce Babcock took
detailed measurements
of the accident scene
and photographs.
DET.
BRUCE BABCOCK: When
we got to the scene,
the grill piece has been
found, uh, in the puddle
by a citizen, who
later gave it to one
of the initially
responding deputies.
Uh, there was also a piece of
clothing that, uh, from Nicole
that we found in
the puddle itself.
-The grill was unique.
It had come from
special edition 1980
Chevrolet Silverado
pickup truck.
Babcock also found
pieces of plastic
from the front turn
signal lens of the truck.
Forensic chemist Bruce Ayala
hoped that Nicole's clothing
would contain vital evidence.
BRUCE AYALA: The first area
of interest in my analysis
was to examine the
victim's clothing,
because many times in
hit and run accidents
where pedestrians
are involved, there
is paint transferred from
the front end of the vehicle
to the victim's clothing.
-Ayala did find paint
on Nicole's clothing.
Under a microscope, he
discovered that the chips
actually contained six
different layers of paint,
but the outer layer of paint
was blue and not green,
as the witnesses had indicated.
The grill left at the scene
matched the pattern injury
on the back of
six-year-old Nicole Walker,
and the head injury on
the back of her head
indicated that Nicole's
head most likely
hit the hood portion
of the truck.
Investigators now changed
the description of the truck
and notified the public to be
on the lookout for a blue 1980
Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck
with possible front end damage.
KENNETH PADOWITZ: And in
essence, there was a man hunt
in an attempt to look
for this vehicle,
because the investigators
knew that if they found
this vehicle, there was a great
likelihood that they would be
able to determine who was
the driver of this truck
and responsible
for Nicole's death.
-News reports of the
hit and run accident
outraged the community.
Detectives searched
all over Florida
for the blue Silverado
pickup truck.
Three weeks went by, then an
anonymous caller told police
that a blue Silverado pickup
truck was in a driveway
about 20 miles from
the accident scene.
KENNETH PADOWITZ: This
deputy arrived at the home,
got out of his
vehicle, and noticed
as he was walking
towards the front door
that there was a truck-- a blue
Silverado pickup truck-- that
was surrounded by
other vehicles.
-A washing machine had been
placed in front of the truck,
obscuring its front end.
The truck did not have the white
camper top witnesses described.
The front grill was
intact, although it was not
the original one, and the front
turn signal lens was broken.
In addition, the
tires did not match
tire impressions from
the accident scene.
The truck was registered to a
Kathryn Pierce, whose husband,
52-year-old Ken Pierce, had a
prior history of driving while
under the influence of alcohol.
One of the victims thought
the driver was a man,
but couldn't identify Ken Pierce
as the driver of the vehicle.
-The truck was just
speeding at us.
All I can remember
is a bright light.
Just bright lights
coming straight at us.
It was-- I was so
confused about the whole--
just the whole thing.
Just not even remember
getting hit or nothing.
It's just weird.
Weird thing.
-Investigators faced two
difficult tasks, first,
trying to prove that this
was the truck involved
in the accident, and
second, to figure
out who was driving the truck.
KENNETH PADOWITZ: The
problem for us was developing
the evidence that was going
to be needed to show who,
in fact, was the driver of
this truck, who veered off
that roadway and hit Nicole
Rae Walker that night
and veered back on
and didn't stop.
That was going to
be the challenge.
-It was now three weeks after
the hit and run death of Nicole
Rae Walker, and
police had the truck
they believed was
involved in the accident.
But there were problems with
making a definitive match.
If this was the truck
in the accident,
it had been altered some
time after the accident
with different tires,
repairs to the front grill,
and the truck did not
have the white camper
top witnesses clearly
recalled seeing.
There were no fingerprints
inside the compartment
of the truck, which
was extremely unusual.
It appeared that the
inside compartment
had been wiped clean.
District Attorney Ken Padowitz
kept a picture of Nicole Walker
on his desk, a sign of his
determination to find out what
exactly happened on the
night of the accident.
So he turned to a new
state-of-the-art scientific
tool, forensic examination,
which can create
a virtual rendering
of an accident.
-The best way to understand the
concept of forensic animation
or reconstruction would be
to understand that what we're
trying to do is visualize the
opinions of other experts.
-All of the information
gathered at the crash site
by accident reconstructionist
Bruce Babcock
was taken into
account, the horizontal
and vertical measurements
of 2,000 feet of roadway,
the eyewitness accounts,
the weather conditions,
and the injuries
sustained by the victims.
The mechanical specifications
of the 1980 Chevrolet Silverado
were also programmed
into the computer.
They also calculated the
approximate tire pressure
and the height and
weight of their suspect,
Ken Pierce, who was 5 foot 11
inches tall and 210 pounds.
All would affect the
height of the truck
as it traveled down the street
before striking the children.
The speed was uncertain, so
they estimated the truck was
traveling 30 miles
per hour, the posted
speed limit on that road.
Michelle Vitello was carrying
six-year-old Nicole Walker
on her right hip at
the time of impact.
When the animators
programmed this information,
they made a startling discovery.
The front grill of
Kenneth Pierce's truck
would have struck Nicole
Walker in the back
at the exact same place
and at the same 22 degree
angle reported by the
forensic pathologist
at Nicole's autopsy.
JACK SUCHOCKI: We then took
an angle of Nicole's spine
to the vertical,
the height of Nicole
from the roadway or the ground.
And suddenly, it was at that
point we discovered that we
could match these bruising
marks and contusions
to actual elements on the front
of the truck, a real revelation
to us, and certainly
something that
could become very
crucial in the case.
-When the animation
was complete,
it consisted of three different
views, an overhead perspective,
providing a bird's eye view
of what happened; another
from inside the vehicle,
which would have been
the view of the alleged
driver, Kenneth Pierce.
From this vantage point, you
can see that Nicole's head would
have hit the front
hood of the truck,
causing her fatal head injury.
The third view, a
so-called chase view,
was from behind the truck.
For further proof, investigators
turned to the paint chip found
on Nicole's shirt at the
time of the accident.
The paint chip was
blue, but there
were five other layers
of paint underneath.
Forensic chemist Bruce Ayala
ground the paint sample
in a pestle, then analyzed it
using infrared spectroscopy,
which uses infrared light to
identify the chemical makeup.
The results were charted
onto a computer graph.
BRUCE AYALA: They were six
different layers of paint.
There was blue metallic
present, blue non-metallic,
gray body filler.
Then there was a blue metallic
factory paint, a white factory
primer, and a black
factory primer.
Uh, subsequently, when we
examined the suspect's vehicle,
we found that all
six of those layers
were present on his vehicle.
-And, finally, the plastic
particles found at the crime
scene were the same
in color and materials
as the broken turn
signal on Pierce's truck.
Although there were
no fingerprints found
in the compartment of the
truck, Kenneth Pierce's is
partial thumb print
was found on a can
on the floor of the vehicle.
52-year-old Kenneth Pierce
was arrested and charged
with vehicular homicide in
the death of Nicole Walker.
[honking]
[screaming]
-The forensic animation
showed clearly
that the driver would
have known he had hit
the children at the
time of the accident.
Before the trial, Ken
Pierce's neighbor Terry Jones
came forward and told police
that Pierce admitted driving
the truck on the
night of the accident.
DET.
BRUCE BABCOCK: Mr. Jones told
us that Ken Pierce had contacted
him and requested that, uh,
he come over and help fix
the damage to the
front of the vehicle.
Uh, he also, uh, uh,
received a camper top
that had been taken
off the vehicle.
Uh, the camper top
was worth about $500,
and Mr. pierce gave
it to him for the work
that he did on the car.
-Kenneth Pierce had a number of
prior arrests and convictions.
KENNETH PADOWITZ: It
should be somewhat
significant to-- to find out
that, in addition to 20 arrests
and convictions for felonies
and misdemeanors in Mr. Pierce's
life, he had two prior
hit and run convictions.
-At the trial,
prosecutors wanted
to introduce the forensic
animation to show the jury
their version of what happened
on the night of the accident.
Defense lawyers claimed that
the animation was nothing more
than speculation and
would prejudice the jury.
Prosecutors said
the animation was
a factual account
of the accident.
The judge ruled that
the forensic animation
was admissible.
It showed that the blue
Silverado truck traveling north
on 33rd Avenue
drove off the road
and struck some trash cans.
After the vehicle stopped
briefly in the cul de sac,
it then turned around and
headed south on 33rd Avenue.
As it approached the
intersection of Griffin Avenue
in front of the
apartment building,
the drug veered off the
road into the puddle
and hit the children.
[honking]
[screaming]
The front grill of the truck
struck six-year-old Nicole
Walker in the back
at a 22 degree angle,
leaving this deep bruise
at the moment of impact.
The truck made a right turn onto
Griffin Avenue and sped off.
The computer animation
constructed exactly to scale
shows that it was a
truck the same height
as the Chevrolet Silverado that
was involved in the accident.
DET.
BRUCE BABCOCK: There was,
uh, no reason for him
not to have known that
it was, in fact, children
that he struck.
In fact, witnesses said that
he accelerated from the scene
as he fled.
-Every single one
of those jurors
had their eyes glued to
that television screen.
And I can say, as I
studied them and watched
them view that
computer animation,
that I had every single moment
of their attention captured
for that brief period of time.
-At the moment of
impact, paint chips
were also deposited on Nicole's
clothing, paint chips which
were later matched to
Mr. Pierce's truck.
-And about front
end damage to a 1980
Chevrolet Silverado
pickup truck.
He hired Terry Jones.
He hired Terry Jones to fix
the front of that truck.
-In addition to the
scientific evidence,
jurors heard testimony that
Ken Pierce made efforts
to conceal damage to the
truck after the accident
and confided to one person
that he was driving the truck.
Just weeks after what would
have been Nicole Walker's
seventh birthday, jurors
delivered a verdict.
JUROR: The defendant is
guilty of vehicular homicide,
leaving the scene of
an accident with death
as charged in the information.
So say we all--
-Because of Mr. Pierce's
prior convictions,
he was sentenced to
40 years in prison.
SUZANNE WALKER: I'm
very glad about that.
This man had seven priors
in the state of Florida.
He never once ever
admitted to what he did.
He's got so many
priors back to 1952.
And I'm sorry.
I don't want this
man in our society.
-This case was the first time
forensic animation had been
admitted into evidence
in a Florida court
and only the third time
in the United States.
-Trial lawyers, whether they
be criminal, prosecutors,
or defense attorneys,
or civil lawyers,
now have an opportunity to use
dynamic new form of evidence
to educate jurors about
issues that are before them
in courts all over this country.
-But for the victims, Kenneth
Pierce's behavior that night
still raises questions for
which there are few answers.
SUZANNE WALKER: Why
didn't you stop?
Why didn't you stop?
Why did you just hit
kids, plow into them,
leave them there to die in a
puddle, and just keep on going?
Just, you know, that's
the biggest thing.
Why?
Why not just stop?
-Well, this case involved
the death of a little girl.
And I became
determined to ensure
that justice was done for her.
And Nicole Rae Walker's family
blew up, uh, a photograph
of their daughter and had a
tear painted on her cheek.
And they presented
Detective Babcock and myself
with a copy of this picture,
and I have that picture
in my office, and it sits there.
And I view it every day because
that photograph reminds me
that justice can still be had
in the criminal justice system.
And the day that I don't
feel that way anymore
is the day that I'm going
to take down her picture.
on a warm summer
evening, five children were
walking home along this road.
Suddenly, out of
nowhere, a pickup truck
headed towards them.
[honking]
[screaming]
-Three of the children were hit.
One was killed.
The driver sped away.
Investigators called on
state-of-the-art science
to reconstruct the crime
in hopes of learning how
the accident happened and
the identity of the driver.
-Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, is one
of America's most
popular resort towns.
The beach and
sunny weather bring
in almost 7 million
tourists each year.
And the city is also
home to 1 and 1/2
million full-time residents.
The Walker family settled
into this working class
neighborhood, one
they believed was
safe from crime and violence.
The Walkers youngest
child, six-year-old Nicole,
loved the neighborhood because
of the large number of children
who all played together.
-She didn't like to smile.
She used to tell people,
I don't know how to smile.
You'd tickle her and
say, see, you can smile.
It'd always be a cockeyed smile.
Her glasses would
always be cockeyed.
So I used to call her my
kooky cockeyed little one.
-Just after dark
on June 23, 1992,
Nicole Walker was
walking home with four
other neighborhood children.
It was just after a rainstorm,
and they were walking along
the side of this road where
there are no sidewalks.
When they got to the front
of this apartment building,
there was a large puddle of
water left from the rainstorm.
Michelle and Gina Vitello were
walking with Nicole that night.
They were 10 years
old at the time.
-I'm walking in the street,
and there's a big puddle,
so we wanted to go
through it so that we
don't have to be in the street.
And Nicole didn't want to walk
through it because she didn't
want to get sick because
she had no shoes on.
So Michelle picked
her up, and we
started walking
through the puddle.
-As we were walking
in this puddle,
I had Nicole in my hands.
Everybody was telling
me to watch out.
And that was about
all I remember.
-And I see this car,
this big-- a bunch
of lights just coming
straight at us.
And I just yell, watch out!
-By the time they saw the
vehicle, it was too late.
Nicole Walker and Michelle
Vitello were both hit.
-I went over to check on Nicole,
and I seen blood coming out
of her mouth and
her ears, and I--
I knew she wasn't
going to make it.
-One of the kids ran
to Nicole's home.
SUZANNE WALKER: There was
the knock at the door,
and it was Joel.
There was no color in
his face, and his eyes
were so bugged out of his head.
He was just-- you could see
the terror, the fright, just
saying, the girls were all hit.
The girls were all hit.
-The children were
rushed to the hospital.
Michelle suffered
a broken leg, two
broken wrists, and
a lacerated liver.
Nine-year-old Brooke Mansey
suffered a fractured shoulder
and facial injuries that
required a dozen stitches.
Six-year-old Nicole died shortly
after arriving at the hospital.
-Some internal surgeons came
in, and the conclusion was, no,
she-- that she
doesn't have a chance.
And I begged and pleaded
even for 1% chance,
and they told me, no.
There's no chance.
-Nicole died of severe
trauma to the head
and massive internal injuries.
A witness said it was a man
driving a green pickup truck
with a white camper top
which sped away quickly, ran
this red light, and disappeared.
MICHELLE VITELLO:
I VITELLO: was just
wondering why-- how can
somebody, like, just hit people
and just keep going
without even caring, like,
what was going to happen
to them and just left
us-- just left us
to die and-- it's
just a-- just-- scary feeling.
I didn't know if they were ever
going to find them or what.
-Investigators were hoping
that science could identify
the pickup truck and the driver.
-How could you hit five
little kids and keep on going?
-Suzanne Walker was
grief-stricken and angry
over the death of
her daughter Nicole.
-How could you do that?
How could anybody hit
kids and keep on going?
Just to know you laid them flat
out in the middle of a road
and by-- you had to know.
-Detective Bruce Babcock,
a member of an elite team
of accident reconstructionists,
was called to the scene.
Just before the
accident, witnesses
said a green truck swerved
off the road, knocking
over some trash cans, then
stopped in a nearby cul de sac.
A few minutes later, the
truck started up again,
heading back out
of the neighborhood
on the same road on
Southwest 33rd Avenue.
As it approached the
apartment building,
it veered off the
road into the puddle,
hitting three of
the five children,
killing six-year-old
Nicole Walker.
Witnesses said the
truck picked up
speed after fleeing
the accident.
Bruce Babcock took
detailed measurements
of the accident scene
and photographs.
DET.
BRUCE BABCOCK: When
we got to the scene,
the grill piece has been
found, uh, in the puddle
by a citizen, who
later gave it to one
of the initially
responding deputies.
Uh, there was also a piece of
clothing that, uh, from Nicole
that we found in
the puddle itself.
-The grill was unique.
It had come from
special edition 1980
Chevrolet Silverado
pickup truck.
Babcock also found
pieces of plastic
from the front turn
signal lens of the truck.
Forensic chemist Bruce Ayala
hoped that Nicole's clothing
would contain vital evidence.
BRUCE AYALA: The first area
of interest in my analysis
was to examine the
victim's clothing,
because many times in
hit and run accidents
where pedestrians
are involved, there
is paint transferred from
the front end of the vehicle
to the victim's clothing.
-Ayala did find paint
on Nicole's clothing.
Under a microscope, he
discovered that the chips
actually contained six
different layers of paint,
but the outer layer of paint
was blue and not green,
as the witnesses had indicated.
The grill left at the scene
matched the pattern injury
on the back of
six-year-old Nicole Walker,
and the head injury on
the back of her head
indicated that Nicole's
head most likely
hit the hood portion
of the truck.
Investigators now changed
the description of the truck
and notified the public to be
on the lookout for a blue 1980
Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck
with possible front end damage.
KENNETH PADOWITZ: And in
essence, there was a man hunt
in an attempt to look
for this vehicle,
because the investigators
knew that if they found
this vehicle, there was a great
likelihood that they would be
able to determine who was
the driver of this truck
and responsible
for Nicole's death.
-News reports of the
hit and run accident
outraged the community.
Detectives searched
all over Florida
for the blue Silverado
pickup truck.
Three weeks went by, then an
anonymous caller told police
that a blue Silverado pickup
truck was in a driveway
about 20 miles from
the accident scene.
KENNETH PADOWITZ: This
deputy arrived at the home,
got out of his
vehicle, and noticed
as he was walking
towards the front door
that there was a truck-- a blue
Silverado pickup truck-- that
was surrounded by
other vehicles.
-A washing machine had been
placed in front of the truck,
obscuring its front end.
The truck did not have the white
camper top witnesses described.
The front grill was
intact, although it was not
the original one, and the front
turn signal lens was broken.
In addition, the
tires did not match
tire impressions from
the accident scene.
The truck was registered to a
Kathryn Pierce, whose husband,
52-year-old Ken Pierce, had a
prior history of driving while
under the influence of alcohol.
One of the victims thought
the driver was a man,
but couldn't identify Ken Pierce
as the driver of the vehicle.
-The truck was just
speeding at us.
All I can remember
is a bright light.
Just bright lights
coming straight at us.
It was-- I was so
confused about the whole--
just the whole thing.
Just not even remember
getting hit or nothing.
It's just weird.
Weird thing.
-Investigators faced two
difficult tasks, first,
trying to prove that this
was the truck involved
in the accident, and
second, to figure
out who was driving the truck.
KENNETH PADOWITZ: The
problem for us was developing
the evidence that was going
to be needed to show who,
in fact, was the driver of
this truck, who veered off
that roadway and hit Nicole
Rae Walker that night
and veered back on
and didn't stop.
That was going to
be the challenge.
-It was now three weeks after
the hit and run death of Nicole
Rae Walker, and
police had the truck
they believed was
involved in the accident.
But there were problems with
making a definitive match.
If this was the truck
in the accident,
it had been altered some
time after the accident
with different tires,
repairs to the front grill,
and the truck did not
have the white camper
top witnesses clearly
recalled seeing.
There were no fingerprints
inside the compartment
of the truck, which
was extremely unusual.
It appeared that the
inside compartment
had been wiped clean.
District Attorney Ken Padowitz
kept a picture of Nicole Walker
on his desk, a sign of his
determination to find out what
exactly happened on the
night of the accident.
So he turned to a new
state-of-the-art scientific
tool, forensic examination,
which can create
a virtual rendering
of an accident.
-The best way to understand the
concept of forensic animation
or reconstruction would be
to understand that what we're
trying to do is visualize the
opinions of other experts.
-All of the information
gathered at the crash site
by accident reconstructionist
Bruce Babcock
was taken into
account, the horizontal
and vertical measurements
of 2,000 feet of roadway,
the eyewitness accounts,
the weather conditions,
and the injuries
sustained by the victims.
The mechanical specifications
of the 1980 Chevrolet Silverado
were also programmed
into the computer.
They also calculated the
approximate tire pressure
and the height and
weight of their suspect,
Ken Pierce, who was 5 foot 11
inches tall and 210 pounds.
All would affect the
height of the truck
as it traveled down the street
before striking the children.
The speed was uncertain, so
they estimated the truck was
traveling 30 miles
per hour, the posted
speed limit on that road.
Michelle Vitello was carrying
six-year-old Nicole Walker
on her right hip at
the time of impact.
When the animators
programmed this information,
they made a startling discovery.
The front grill of
Kenneth Pierce's truck
would have struck Nicole
Walker in the back
at the exact same place
and at the same 22 degree
angle reported by the
forensic pathologist
at Nicole's autopsy.
JACK SUCHOCKI: We then took
an angle of Nicole's spine
to the vertical,
the height of Nicole
from the roadway or the ground.
And suddenly, it was at that
point we discovered that we
could match these bruising
marks and contusions
to actual elements on the front
of the truck, a real revelation
to us, and certainly
something that
could become very
crucial in the case.
-When the animation
was complete,
it consisted of three different
views, an overhead perspective,
providing a bird's eye view
of what happened; another
from inside the vehicle,
which would have been
the view of the alleged
driver, Kenneth Pierce.
From this vantage point, you
can see that Nicole's head would
have hit the front
hood of the truck,
causing her fatal head injury.
The third view, a
so-called chase view,
was from behind the truck.
For further proof, investigators
turned to the paint chip found
on Nicole's shirt at the
time of the accident.
The paint chip was
blue, but there
were five other layers
of paint underneath.
Forensic chemist Bruce Ayala
ground the paint sample
in a pestle, then analyzed it
using infrared spectroscopy,
which uses infrared light to
identify the chemical makeup.
The results were charted
onto a computer graph.
BRUCE AYALA: They were six
different layers of paint.
There was blue metallic
present, blue non-metallic,
gray body filler.
Then there was a blue metallic
factory paint, a white factory
primer, and a black
factory primer.
Uh, subsequently, when we
examined the suspect's vehicle,
we found that all
six of those layers
were present on his vehicle.
-And, finally, the plastic
particles found at the crime
scene were the same
in color and materials
as the broken turn
signal on Pierce's truck.
Although there were
no fingerprints found
in the compartment of the
truck, Kenneth Pierce's is
partial thumb print
was found on a can
on the floor of the vehicle.
52-year-old Kenneth Pierce
was arrested and charged
with vehicular homicide in
the death of Nicole Walker.
[honking]
[screaming]
-The forensic animation
showed clearly
that the driver would
have known he had hit
the children at the
time of the accident.
Before the trial, Ken
Pierce's neighbor Terry Jones
came forward and told police
that Pierce admitted driving
the truck on the
night of the accident.
DET.
BRUCE BABCOCK: Mr. Jones told
us that Ken Pierce had contacted
him and requested that, uh,
he come over and help fix
the damage to the
front of the vehicle.
Uh, he also, uh, uh,
received a camper top
that had been taken
off the vehicle.
Uh, the camper top
was worth about $500,
and Mr. pierce gave
it to him for the work
that he did on the car.
-Kenneth Pierce had a number of
prior arrests and convictions.
KENNETH PADOWITZ: It
should be somewhat
significant to-- to find out
that, in addition to 20 arrests
and convictions for felonies
and misdemeanors in Mr. Pierce's
life, he had two prior
hit and run convictions.
-At the trial,
prosecutors wanted
to introduce the forensic
animation to show the jury
their version of what happened
on the night of the accident.
Defense lawyers claimed that
the animation was nothing more
than speculation and
would prejudice the jury.
Prosecutors said
the animation was
a factual account
of the accident.
The judge ruled that
the forensic animation
was admissible.
It showed that the blue
Silverado truck traveling north
on 33rd Avenue
drove off the road
and struck some trash cans.
After the vehicle stopped
briefly in the cul de sac,
it then turned around and
headed south on 33rd Avenue.
As it approached the
intersection of Griffin Avenue
in front of the
apartment building,
the drug veered off the
road into the puddle
and hit the children.
[honking]
[screaming]
The front grill of the truck
struck six-year-old Nicole
Walker in the back
at a 22 degree angle,
leaving this deep bruise
at the moment of impact.
The truck made a right turn onto
Griffin Avenue and sped off.
The computer animation
constructed exactly to scale
shows that it was a
truck the same height
as the Chevrolet Silverado that
was involved in the accident.
DET.
BRUCE BABCOCK: There was,
uh, no reason for him
not to have known that
it was, in fact, children
that he struck.
In fact, witnesses said that
he accelerated from the scene
as he fled.
-Every single one
of those jurors
had their eyes glued to
that television screen.
And I can say, as I
studied them and watched
them view that
computer animation,
that I had every single moment
of their attention captured
for that brief period of time.
-At the moment of
impact, paint chips
were also deposited on Nicole's
clothing, paint chips which
were later matched to
Mr. Pierce's truck.
-And about front
end damage to a 1980
Chevrolet Silverado
pickup truck.
He hired Terry Jones.
He hired Terry Jones to fix
the front of that truck.
-In addition to the
scientific evidence,
jurors heard testimony that
Ken Pierce made efforts
to conceal damage to the
truck after the accident
and confided to one person
that he was driving the truck.
Just weeks after what would
have been Nicole Walker's
seventh birthday, jurors
delivered a verdict.
JUROR: The defendant is
guilty of vehicular homicide,
leaving the scene of
an accident with death
as charged in the information.
So say we all--
-Because of Mr. Pierce's
prior convictions,
he was sentenced to
40 years in prison.
SUZANNE WALKER: I'm
very glad about that.
This man had seven priors
in the state of Florida.
He never once ever
admitted to what he did.
He's got so many
priors back to 1952.
And I'm sorry.
I don't want this
man in our society.
-This case was the first time
forensic animation had been
admitted into evidence
in a Florida court
and only the third time
in the United States.
-Trial lawyers, whether they
be criminal, prosecutors,
or defense attorneys,
or civil lawyers,
now have an opportunity to use
dynamic new form of evidence
to educate jurors about
issues that are before them
in courts all over this country.
-But for the victims, Kenneth
Pierce's behavior that night
still raises questions for
which there are few answers.
SUZANNE WALKER: Why
didn't you stop?
Why didn't you stop?
Why did you just hit
kids, plow into them,
leave them there to die in a
puddle, and just keep on going?
Just, you know, that's
the biggest thing.
Why?
Why not just stop?
-Well, this case involved
the death of a little girl.
And I became
determined to ensure
that justice was done for her.
And Nicole Rae Walker's family
blew up, uh, a photograph
of their daughter and had a
tear painted on her cheek.
And they presented
Detective Babcock and myself
with a copy of this picture,
and I have that picture
in my office, and it sits there.
And I view it every day because
that photograph reminds me
that justice can still be had
in the criminal justice system.
And the day that I don't
feel that way anymore
is the day that I'm going
to take down her picture.