After a night out, a man awakes handcuffed to a hospital bed and blinded in one eye from a gunshot wound. He stands accused of trying to murder his fiancee and his neighbor but claims to have limited memory of the night before. Was this an act of extreme violence or the result of a traumatic brain injury?
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00:00I
00:19Tell me exactly what happened my fiance's beating the door and right now trying to kill us both
00:30What is that noise is that the shots fired it's a gunshot it's a gunshot
00:42I don't remember what happened
00:45I've been trying to figure this out because how do I defend myself if I don't even know what happened that night
00:50When I woke up in the hospital
00:52People were telling me what had happened and it's like oh my god. This is awful
01:00I was chained to a hospital bed with doctors saying we're gonna have to pull his eye out
01:07They had told me that I tried to kill the woman that I loved and shot up my neighbor's house
01:16These charges are very serious he's fighting for his life
01:30I'm andrea hall and I am a criminal defense attorney in northern colorado and I represent john lot
01:46John is currently charged with 18 counts of felony crimes
01:52Two of them which are the most serious are attempted first-degree murder
01:57Against two alleged victims
01:59Ultimately with all of the counts john's looking at a life sentence in prison
02:16John and his recently engaged fiance had a dinner at his home
02:25They decided to go out and have a few beverages at the local watering hole
02:31It is really hard because john has a lack of memory for a significant portion of the night
02:40And I don't know if that's a result of the traumatic brain injury that he sustained when he was shot at the neighbor's house
02:48The allegation from her is that john strangled and beat as well as kidnapped her outside the bar
03:07There's no footage, but we know he got in a car and drove
03:13They arrived home and got into an altercation
03:18Based on the physical evidence that is at john's house
03:22Two shots are fired in the bedroom
03:24from john's 357
03:27But there were also two shots fired in the living room
03:31We can see where the bullet holes were
03:37John followed her over to the neighbor's house and that is where the incident
03:46Primarily took place
03:48And that is why as a result of john shooting at the house he was charged with two counts of attempted murder
03:55He's got an arsenal of weapons that has ars everything
04:11Somebody hurry they're already on the way, okay
04:13I
04:21Open the door
04:25Where's this guy he lives next door he had an ar he was blowing the house apart did you fire this is laughing?
04:32I fired a shotgun one time
04:34That's what hit him. That's what
04:36The prosecution believes that this case was
04:52Domestic violence and that ultimately john got everything he deserved
04:58Let's stand up one
05:00two
05:01Three
05:02Because of john's lack of memory
05:05It's hard for him to help in his own defense
05:10We have been
05:12Behind the eight ball attempting to figure out what transpired
05:18This is a very difficult case
05:23And it's a battle
05:31I
05:33I
05:35I
05:37I
05:39I
05:41I
05:43I
05:45I
05:47I
05:49I
05:51I
05:53I
05:55I
05:57I
05:59I
06:01I
06:03I
06:05I
06:07I
06:09I feel like this place I always end up back here
06:11It's always either a new beginning or an ending
06:13And turn another page
06:15It's a place that I proposed to my ex
06:17That was going to be the next chapter in my life
06:19I
06:31I
06:33I wasn't planning on proposing so quickly but
06:35The ring was perfect
06:37The situation seemed good
06:39And we started discussing moving into the house and remodeling the house
06:43It just seemed like the right thing to do
06:45And I really felt it I really felt it from the bottom of my heart that that's something that I wanted to do
06:51We were both over it we had done the dating scene we had done the partying scene
06:55And at this time it seemed like we really just had everything in common
07:03It just fit together really well
07:05It's
07:11It's
07:13I don't know I don't know how I got to where it went in one night
07:20It's just hard to believe that it happened
07:22Our plans for that weekend were to wake up early in the morning
07:32And get all the remodeling list done for the house the next day
07:36But
07:38Instead of waking up to do
07:40A remodel list
07:42I woke up chained to a hospital bed
07:44And this with doctors saying
07:46We're gonna have to pull his eye out
07:48And
07:49I was being accused of trying to kill the woman that I loved
07:52Also a neighbor that I was pretty fond of
07:54And that I was gonna be going to jail for attempted murder
07:58Going from the pinnacle of life to that is something I never thought would ever happen
08:18So John I want to just briefly go over the charges you know that you have 18 counts and the most serious
08:47And the most serious being the attempt to commit murder against two individuals
08:54With these charges potentially you're looking at life in prison
09:02John can you give me a broad overview of what happened that night
09:06That's something I've been trying to figure out ever since this started
09:09My lack of memory has been the worst thing in this case
09:13Why am I missing hours?
09:15Next thing I remember I wake up in the hospital
09:19I did get diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury
09:24And then also post concussive amnesia
09:26Okay
09:27The jury is gonna hear attempted murder domestic violence just like the cops did right?
09:29Like they showed up on scene and they heard this was a murder
09:51The jury is going to hear attempted murder, domestic violence, just like the cops did, right?
09:56Like they showed up on scene and they heard this was a domestic, shots fired.
10:01Why do we need to investigate anything, right?
10:04Had you ever been physical with her or aggressive, pushed her, touched her, anything?
10:23Because we've gone from a relationship that's beautiful, we just got engaged to, holy crap.
10:31That's what I wondered when I woke up in the hospital.
10:34That was like, how?
10:37I did what?
10:39We have to be able to get the jury to understand why you went from, we're fine, we're engaged, we're having a couple cocktails to, boom, the wheels have fallen off the bus and you're blowing someone's house up.
10:54We're going to have to piece this case together as best we can with what physical evidence we can find.
11:02It's important for us to get experts to look at your medical records, the ballistics, because we have to be able to explain that through the experts, through the evidence, why the jury should not find you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to these charges.
11:20My client was interviewed three times within the first 48 hours of the incident happening in the early morning hours of October 16th, 2021.
11:40I'm not sure if you remember, but we spoke at the hospital.
12:07Something went wrong at the bar.
12:21Okay.
12:22Exiting the bar.
12:23Okay.
12:23And I remember we got into an argument and I think I threw her a purse or something.
12:31So you pushed her, she fell to the ground, anything else with her at that point?
12:36I just pushed her.
12:36She had hit me already, yeah.
12:38Okay.
12:38She hit me and I pushed her.
12:40All right.
12:41But there was no strangling or anything in the bar, I'm not there.
12:44No.
12:44Okay.
12:45Yes, he does admit that they got into an altercation.
13:02He says numerous times that she was hitting him.
13:05He does say repeatedly that he did not strangle her and that's the allegation from her is that she was strangled repeatedly to unconsciousness and that he was bashing her head on the ground in the bar parking lot.
13:20We believe medical records do not substantiate that she was strangled as well as all of the body camera footage with the officers on scene and the photographs that were taken of her.
13:33I drove kind of like a crazy person all the way home holding her down.
13:36Okay.
13:37And then she was freaking out in the car and that's when she hit me again and we just kind of tumbled out of the car on my side.
13:45Do you remember carrying her at any point?
13:49Vaguely.
13:49Can you tell me about that?
13:51That's all I remember is for a second.
13:54Where were you when you had that glimpse of carrying her?
13:57Right there in the walkway towards the house.
14:02Okay.
14:03So you carried her all the way into the house or how do I understand?
14:07I don't know.
14:08Okay.
14:10So that's a little different than kind of spilling over from the jeep onto the ground.
14:14That's what I'm trying to understand.
14:14That's what I thought had happened.
14:17My memory is all over the place, man.
14:19I got a major concussion.
14:20I got shot in the head.
14:22Okay.
14:22So do you see how in that little section, John went from, I didn't carry her to, oh, I have a glimpse of a memory.
14:34I think I carried her.
14:36I was carrying her for a little while in the driveway.
14:38He now added a bunch of things that just two seconds ago he said he had no memory of.
14:45And so he's feeding the detective information that he thinks he needs to say.
14:51He should have still been in the hospital.
15:00He should have never been talking to the detective.
15:02At that point in time, his discharge records recommended that he be on pain medication.
15:08And when I reviewed the medical records from the jail, John was not being treated appropriately.
15:14He had not received any pain medication.
15:17We are moving to suppress this interview because John could not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights, which the detective goes through because John clearly is in custody.
15:29I don't want anything misconstrued.
15:31Fair enough.
15:32This is the rest of my life, man, and it was, this is a domestic violence that was a two-way thing.
15:37I brought out a gun, I fired a gun.
15:39I feel like I should definitely be charged for domestic violence.
15:42I feel like I should definitely get charged for trying to get in my neighbor's house and firing a firearm.
15:49I don't think I deserve attempted murder.
15:51I'm not a bad person.
15:52I don't think I should go to prison for the rest of my life.
15:59I just wanted to stay assured I wasn't trying to kill anybody.
16:05Okay.
16:06I wanted to get into the house.
16:08I was angry.
16:10I did, I did bad things.
16:12Okay.
16:13For the charge of first-degree attempted murder, I have to somehow present to the jury that this is a man that was not in his right state of mind.
16:26And he could not formulate the mental culpability to meet the elements of the crimes he's charged with.
16:35My job is to find the physical evidence that would support the theory that he didn't know what he was doing when he went over to the neighbor's house.
16:47I woke up like this, blind in one eye.
17:08It is something not easy to look at every day in the mirror because it's a reminder that half of me is kind of dead in a way.
17:20I do have prosthetic eyes.
17:28It's a pretty simple process.
17:30A little plunger.
17:31Put it right on the eye.
17:34And it just goes right up and in.
17:41And then I have an eye again.
17:42But it produces a lot of discharge in this eye.
17:46And then it affects this eye and I can't see out of it.
17:48So I usually choose not to wear it just because it's not comfortable.
17:53So, and then it also kind of has like a cross-eye effect.
17:56Pupils never match.
17:57I get self-conscious about it.
17:58I talked with the guy that made my prosthetic eye.
18:13You know, could you make me something really cool and meaningful?
18:16And he was like, yeah, sure.
18:18What do you want?
18:19I always felt like I was saved by the grace of God.
18:21I asked him if he could make me a solid black eye with a crucifix in the middle of it.
18:29I'm not as self-conscious with this one because it doesn't really point any direction.
18:33So I don't look cross-eyed or anything like that.
18:35There's no expectation for it to match the other eye.
18:39I don't think I'd be here without God and without Christ.
18:42I didn't put my hands around her neck.
19:00My arm might have been around her neck with some pressure, but I didn't strangle her to death.
19:05I didn't try to kill her.
19:07I always want to be in control of my client's statements.
19:20There are some statements that are very helpful for us.
19:23However, there are other statements that John made that, you know, I don't think are particularly nice or helpful when it comes to some of his comments.
19:34So the judge denied our motion to suppress his statement.
19:56So this judge believed that John clearly was okay, clearly could comprehend what was going on, and therefore any of his statements he made are coming in.
20:15I knew probably going into this motion that we were not going to win it.
20:24I can ultimately deal with her ruling.
20:27I'm able to pivot.
20:29I can live with it.
20:30Good morning, Dr. Smock.
20:59Thank you for taking the time to meet with me this morning.
21:03Good morning.
21:03I'm happy to be here.
21:05You've had an opportunity to look at the CT scans and John's medical records.
21:10What are your thoughts?
21:12Right.
21:13Once I looked at the physical evidence, that being the photographs of John's face and the CT scans, show that there is a bullet.
21:22Not shotgun pellets, not shotgun pellets, but a bullet in his face.
21:28It was clear that he was shot with two different types of weapons.
21:32The shotgun that came through the window of the neighbor's house was one.
21:52But when you look at the CT scan, there is a huge metallic fragment, a bullet, in his right cheek that is lodged back up against the base of the skull.
22:05Clear physical and medical evidence that he was shot with two different weapons, shotgun and the .357 revolver.
22:12Obviously, it would be amazing if we could get this piece out of John's body, right?
22:27If this metallic fragment is up against an artery or a nerve and they try to remove it, clearly there is the risk that John could be paralyzed or he could bleed to death if, in the removal process, it damaged an artery.
22:42Right.
22:42So, is there any way for us to determine a time frame of when John potentially was shot with the .357 versus when he went to the neighbor's house and the wheels fell off the bus?
22:59Yeah, well, there is some physical evidence.
23:01So, we do have a sequence.
23:03We know that the .357 was discharged first inside the house.
23:10Four rounds into the ceiling and the floor, one round into his face.
23:15He is bleeding.
23:16There is blood on the bathroom floor.
23:18There is blood on the shotgun.
23:20Then John goes next door, shoots the shotgun, comes back to the house, drops the shotgun, gets his AR, his .223, and then goes to the neighbor.
23:32And then that's when he is shot through the window by the neighbor.
23:37We know that five rounds were discharged from the .357 revolver.
23:42The order, we don't.
23:45We know bedroom, living room, and in John's face.
23:49It was clear that the Colorado Springs police assumed that all five rounds from the .357 were discharged inside the house and that all of John's facial injuries were from the shotgun.
24:04And that was clearly not the case.
24:06And there were a few areas on John's face that looked like he was hit with pieces of unburned gunpowder.
24:12We call that tattooing or stippling.
24:14This is consistent with being shot by someone else at an intermediate range up to 48 inches away from his face.
24:23John was shot.
24:25He did not shoot himself.
24:26This is a pivotal piece in our case for the defense.
24:42Thank you, Dr. Smock.
24:43I appreciate your time.
24:45Okay.
24:46Thanks.
24:46You too.
24:47Bye-bye.
24:47Bye-bye.
24:47Bye-bye.
25:17There's a bullet in my face that measures the same as what was in my pistol that night.
25:31I think that if somebody's shot in the face, what happens after that would probably be pretty brutal and terrible.
25:40It wasn't my intention to go and kill somebody.
25:44It was a traumatic brain injury.
25:47I don't remember, so I don't know.
25:50But something happened leading up to these events, and now we have the evidence of it.
25:54Hello, Dr. Mills.
26:17Thank you so much for meeting with me this morning.
26:20Good morning and hello.
26:21Good to see you.
26:32So you've had an opportunity to review the CT scans and some of the comments by Dr. Smock.
26:40What are your initial thoughts at this point in time?
26:44Zhang was a hit from the front.
26:46Brain hits the back of the skull.
26:47The brain hits the front of the skull, and the brain is disrupted.
26:51It's the prefrontal cortex that is typically particularly badly affected.
26:56He had a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, that he woke up highly confused, that he has significantly diminished recollection, that during that period, I don't think he could, even if he wanted to, act rationally.
27:12One of the things that the jury is going to have to understand for finding him not guilty is, was he able to formulate the mental culpability?
27:29Did he formulate a plan?
27:31Clearly, John was able to grab a gun, in fact, grab two guns at various points.
27:36He was able to walk over to the neighbors twice.
27:38He was able to fire those guns.
27:40So he's not just lying there limp like a rag.
27:45That he was not able during this period to formulate a plan.
27:49He's not reacting in a focused or deliberate or a reconsidered way.
27:54So it's getting the jury to understand, as a result of being shot in the face, that John would not be able to formulate the mental culpability that's necessary for the charges that he's facing.
28:09How do you propose that we get a jury to understand that?
28:15We're going to show that John suffered a significant injury to his, not only his head and his face and his eye, but also to his brain, that he was acting impulsively or automatically.
28:28I think that's as good as we can do.
28:31I mean, this is a person who was significantly confused.
28:35Thank you for your time.
28:36My pleasure.
28:37Thank you for your time.
29:37It's been 15 months since the last trial, and it's been a bit wild.
30:04so i did get another attorney yeah i hired michael stuczynski
30:26i don't really like relinquishing control to anybody especially over my life and that's been
30:31the hardest part of all of this but i really do like the guys on a personal level there's an equal
30:37passion for the case i think we're more dialed in this time to have a successful trial
31:02i decided to take on mr lott's case when i met him by happenstance trying another client's case
31:07right next door to his first trial his story seemed so compelling and the evidence so interesting
31:14that i felt that if i had an opportunity i'd be a fool to pass it up
31:34john how are you good to see you good to see you man and grab a seat all right so john thanks for
31:40coming i wanted to sit down and just talk to you about trial prep yep we want to make sure there's
31:46nothing that we leave unanswered as we've talked about in the past we have a two-prong defense
31:52the first prong is going to be what we're going to call the bullet event
31:55you getting shot in the face with what looks like a handgun round timing is important right
32:01you get shot first that causes your brain to function in a different way than it does when
32:14you're not shot that explains what happens next in a way that makes it not a criminal event
32:19and i agree i don't think that anybody that's shot in the face is going to act how they typically
32:26would we need to make sure the jury has sympathy for you at the beginning because i believe there's
32:33a possibility that your ex-fiancé shot you we can show that you didn't do it to yourself we can also
32:40eliminate the possibility that the neighbor discharged that round
32:43our theory is that by process of elimination that leaves only your ex-fiancé
33:04let's move on to the second prong which is attacking the credibility of your ex-fiancé
33:09i've reviewed her prior statements over and over again i believe that they don't match up with any
33:14of the objective evidence
33:30i cannot stress enough how important the ex-fiancé's inconsistencies are to this case right yeah we have
33:36an opportunity to flip the narrative immediately after opening statements
33:40my job is not to hurt her feelings my job is to win your case and create doubt
33:46so we're going to do that very easily through photographs of her through the video at the bar
33:50and statements to the police i think you hit it all i'm confident in it so i appreciate it man
33:55no problem as always thanks for your time pleasure to see you thanks for having me
34:01i've been pretty confident in mike so far um we've had a lot of conversations so everything
34:05has been realistic which is great the case is moving forward in a positive way
34:22all right everything everyone it's my second time going to trial
34:27so i don't have the largest faith in 12 strangers
34:35you never know if they're going to lean one way or the other way
34:49my fiance's beating the door and right now we're trying to kill us both
35:01oh my god what is that noise it's gunshot it's gunshot
35:13so he hit he beat my head on the ground and then he crushed my throat with his knee several times
35:34it started out with her telling relatively coherent story that is both bizarre and terrifying
35:48of mr lot repeatedly assaulting and strangling her to unconsciousness
35:53we were able to very factually point out the discrepancies between the story she told and the
35:58objective evidence of the photographs showing no injuries on cross-examination she retreated a lot
36:05from her definitive responses saying i don't know or i don't remember to almost every question
36:11right now the jury seems to be keeping an open mind i feel there's a lot of reasons they should
36:16be skeptical that the ex-fiance's version of events is accurate
36:28seeing my ex on the stand it is difficult because there are feelings and emotions
36:34i mean it's still somebody that i was in love with it was still somebody that i was attracted to
36:39but it's just a different situation now
36:41at some point you just kind of have to turn your emotions off and um maybe i miss out on some
36:50feelings of positivity because i'm attempting to feel nothing at all
37:11but i don't know if you're in love with it but i don't know if i don't know if i don't know
37:16these people are in a house they got shot full of 20-something bullets
37:20and that's terrifying but is he acting with the desire to injure or kill people
37:25this is only one component of a very complicated case there's a lot of work left to do
37:41i don't know when you look at the ct scan there is a huge metallic fragment a bullet in his right
37:55cheek clear physical and medical evidence that he was shot with two different weapons shotgun and the 357
38:03revolver
38:18so dr mills testified today that mr lott was incapable by virtue of his traumatic brain injury
38:23of forming the mental state why it does not reflect that it was the product of conscious judgment and
38:28deliberation his testimony is very difficult he's probably has the most difficult part of any of
38:33the experts a little bit worried that it might have been a little bit too over the heads of some
38:39people because there's a lot of complexities
38:53so
39:09so
39:21so
39:23so
39:29so
39:31how are you feeling
39:45probably the most intense moment of my life sometimes i feel like there's like this one little
39:49thing i'm like oh why didn't we say that why do we say that yeah also i think that we we hit the
39:54the huge topics um most important being the tbi the bullet in my face
40:02being accused is probably the worst thing that can ever happen to you you know i went through the
40:08recovery process of multiple bullets hitting my face having my eye pulled out of my head
40:13i think it's um a traumatic experience both mentally and physically and um i hope that it can be over soon
40:20be all right we'll be over in two minutes cheers cheers we've gotten a verdict so we're going to go over and receive that now
40:36i think you drag somebody through years and years and years of a process like this
40:42you just don't really care anymore
40:50you
41:20disappointing right when you don't get what you think is fair i didn't think that the verdicts
41:39could be different with respect to the two victims uh it was not a theory i had considered
41:44but the jury felt differently the jury they accepted the evidence that mr lott was shot
41:53what they didn't believe it was such a severe injury just to rob him of his faculties
41:58it's sad you know because you've gotten to know this person who even if they have done something
42:10terrible that's not the entirety of the definition of who they are going through this process
42:18it's almost an electric feeling in your body that's so intense emotionally that you feel like
42:26you're going to go into shock this is probably worse than any kind of physical pain that i've
42:33ever been through in my entire life it does change you changes you in a big way