Krystal Lee, a nurse, plead guilty to tampering with evidence in the murder case of Kelsey Berreth. Patrick Frazee is charged with Kelsey’s murder. Lee allocated in court that she tampered with Kelsey’s cell phone after the murder at the behest of Frazee. It is a new development in the case that has captured the Nation’s attention. I discuss the breaking developments as the news broke on HLN TV with Christi Paul.
#PatrickFrazee #KelseyBerreth #KrystalLee #murder #truecrime
#PatrickFrazee Accomplice #KrystalKenney Pleads Guilty for Murder Coverup
February 10th, 2019
Christi Paul: I want to bring in former head prosecutor Bob Bianchi for his take on this to. Bob let’s touch on that, as Scott was saying, that she was near tears and acknowledged that she knew Frazee had committed homicide. They don’t find a body, it’s basically her word against his yes?
Robert Bianchi: No, I don’t think so there’s a lot of supporting evidence that she has to provide. It is alleged so far in the media accounts and it sounds reasonable to me that the cell phone was manipulated by her i.e. she was sending texts, making it appear like it was from the victim’s phone. So, she also had a number of conversations where Christi, you have to remember, that she told murder Kelsey, way before the murder actually took place. So, what that spells for me as a homicide prosecutor.
Christy Paul: Hey Bob, I’m sorry that, I’m sorry I’m just going to have to stop you there, because we’re having some real bad audio issues and I apologize to our viewers. But we’re going to take a minute to regroup with you Bob, we’ll come back to you in a minute. But we just wanted to let everybody know, we’re going to stay on this, we’re going to find out what was happening there, and we’re going to get our audio issues taken care of there.
Male Anchor: Let’s look at a press conference that is about to happen, District Attorney’s going to give that, potentially answering some of the questions we have. We talk to Scott about that as well, get a little more clarification. So, we’ll monitor that for you in the meantime. I think we have things cleared up with Bob.
Christi Paul: I think we do. Ask and you shall receive apparently. Hey Bob, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to cut you off, but let me ask you this, how likely is she because the one thing that was missing as far as we know where a lot of details about what she knows. Is there a belief I would think at this point that she’s going to lead them to a body?
Robert Bianchi: You know I don’t know that Christi, that’s a really good question. That’s the first thing that came to my mind but nevertheless to get back to the point before the audio cut out, she provides crucial data the prosecution is not going to need a body because of her. Of course, they want to get the body for closure of the family and that helps a case but remember she told a friend back in November that the defendant was trying to get her to help assist in murdering. Now, that’s really important because that friend went and told her boss, oh my god my friend that is you know the nurse, Ms. Lee, is telling me that Frazee is trying to get her to kill the wife. So, that’s really important right there and not to mention the fact that we believe that Lee had actually taken the phone and was texting from that phone, to make it appear that Kelsey was calling into work saying that she wouldn’t be there. So, that’s an accessory after the fact all these data points are excellent for the prosecutor. And lastly, Christie, and most importantly for a prosecutor, it eliminates the defenses like passion provocation or an instantaneous thing that occurred to lessen or mitigate the defense. Basically, he was planning this for over a month, that’s killer evidence, positive great evidence for the prosecution in the case.
Christi Paul: Premeditation when it comes to her and mitigating factors do you expect or is there an expectation that she may say, listen I was fearful of him? So, that’s why I went along with it.
Robert Bianchi: Well that’s what the news accounts are kind of saying. She kind of had a relationship and was enamored with him since high school. So, that’s one piece but the other piece is that he was according to reports, was threatening her saying we know how to meet people, children, to leave on the playground, or some sort of threat like that, I forget what the exact verbiage is, but she felt that she was being pressured to do this. Now, you know that she is giving a lot of important information for one reason only she was interviewed by the FBI, she must have given so much positive data to them that they actually did not arrest her. They allowed her own volition to cross state lines, coming into another court with a plea that was you know obviously done with the prosecutor be satisfied that they have her locked in, if you will. Everything that they need in order to prove the case against him.
Christi Paul: And we heard Scott , you know the judge had said, look this could go on for six months this can go on for two years before sentencing her. What is her life like from now until this is over?
Robert Bianchi: Her life is destroyed you know I can’t count how many cases I have been in in virtually the same scenario where somebody’s prevailing upon me with either their lover or with an ex-lover. or threatening somebody to be involved as an accessory to murder. Look at the national media attention this has gotten. Her life is going to be just miserable for the sake that it will never be the same. People look at her as a person who participated in the heinous killing of this woman leaving the child orphaned, and there’s no way of recovering from that in today’s social media world. But no matter what she does to cooperate it’s not going to make it right in the court of public opinion, but it will in a court of law and in her terms of her prosecution.
Christi Paul: But I mean if she okay, so she’s not going to be held you know , she not going to be held during this time. This could go on for two months to two years, you know six months or two years as the judge said. Does she go back to work, does she try to lead a normal life? How do you do that ?
Robert Bianchi: Well that’s a great question.
Christi Paul: Does she get security because there are crazy people out there who might say, you helped with this and I’m going to kill you.
Robert Bianchi: Well yes Christi, and you bring what we call collateral consequences to things like this. They’re not legal there collateral she’s a nurse she is in a position of trust of patients of care, Now, if you’re an administrator of a hospital are you going to say, oh, listen you owned up to it, you plead guilty, that’s pretty much going to end her nursing career without any doubt in my mind and then of course as you noted you got the crazies that are out there. And I say crazy because look you resolve these things in a court of law but there are going to be a number of people who are going to be coming after her and her, she’s going to be in harm. I would expect she’s going to have to move to undisclosed location, she’s going to try to change your identity, she doesn’t want to be going around the scarlet letter if you will to begin with. So, she’s going to face all sorts of life altering consequences.
Christi Paul: Yeah, and I think she’s absorbing that as you know, as Scott McClain said, while he was in court that she was near tears when she made her statement to the court Bob Bianca thank you so much. Bob, we always appreciate your expertise. Thanks for being here.
Christi Paul: Okay so Bob, I want to focus in on something, Bob Bianchi back with us now. I want to focus in on something that the DA Dan May said there, he said, I cannot comment as to why we agreed to take a plea deal with her. You would think looking at it on the surface, you know why, they don’t want to compromise the investigation, but she’s already laid her cards out on the table. Does the fact that he doesn’t want to release anything more about that tell you there are still some cards to be turned over here?
Robert Bianchi: Absolutely, you know, I was having flashbacks for the poor guy when I was in the middle of those conferences so many times, with the media. This prosecutor is playing it by the ethics rules he is not grandstanding like so many prosecutors have a pension of doing. By playing the case out in the court of public opinion and it always comes back to bite the prosecutor in the backside when they do it. It’s not right to do, so he’s basically following the ethics rules by saying, I can only comment on those things that are in the record, that occurred in court, but I can’t comment about stuff that I know about. And what he does know about, you can bet Christi, this witness has given a plethora of data. Number one, apparently Frazee has confessed to her that he committed the murder, and number two solicited her to get rid of the cell phone or manipulate the cell phone to throw the law enforcement off his tracks. This is a major cooperating witness for the prosecution hence the reason she was given this plea agreement, tampering with evidence, where she plays ball correctly and she will. I can tell you just by the nature of what’s going on here. She can get even a probationary sentence out of this and no jail time at all. So, the prosecutor, unfortunately is in that regrettable position as I was so many times, by saying I can’t comment, I can’t comment, I can’t comment. But you can be assured they’ve got a lot more data from her.
Christi Paul: And they said, Frazee’s next preliminary hearing February 19th, he did say more information would be released then and that’s just ten days away. Bob Bianchi thank you so much.
Robert Bianchi: My pleasure Christie. Thank you.
Christi Paul: Always good to have you here, absolutely. We’ll be right back, stay close.