Drug Dealer Charged for Giving Out Killer Heroin; 5 Dead, Woman Allegedly Kills Men With Heroin; Missing Plane In Bermuda Triangle; Clumsy Shoplifting Suspect; Driver Smashes Into Child, Then Speeds Off.
BANFIELD: This week, an alleged drug dealer, street name Ice, is on trial in Minnesota. And this is the first of a kind not because she`s an accused drug dealer. There`s plenty of that street scum to go around. Instead, this is because prosecutors say this woman, Beverly Burrell, code name Ice -- they say her drugs killed almost a half dozen people, that they know of. They say five of her customers died in seven months, and they want her to pay as a murderer. The family of Max Tillit told the court this week that their son began using heroin in high school after a football injury, and they say Ice was his primary source. But the defense attorney says that those addicts could have bought their legal (ph) doses anywhere, adding that it`s common for them to have multiple dealers in case supplies don`t last. The parents of another victim had to listen to that. This is Luke Ronnei. His parents said this is not the case for him. They said Ice was the only person who sold him the deadly heroin. His mom says that she even followed her son on several drug buys, worried about him. She said she watched her son and his friends all buying drugs from lady Ice. Colleen Ronnei says that the dealer even sold her son, Luke, heroin in the middle of the day with kids in her car! Colleen Ronnei joins me now live from Minneapolis. Colleen, first and foremost, I`m so sorry for the loss of your son. I`m so sorry for what you`ve had to go through. And I`m also -- I`m also buoyed and proud that you are taking this mantle and you are fighting back. But I want to ask you how things are going in court because this is a tough case.</s>COLLEEN RONNEI, SON KILLED BY HEROIN OVERDOSE (via telephone): Actually, the court, both the defense and the prosecution, rested their cases today. It was a very short trial mostly because there were many stipulations that her attorney agreed to because, really, the crimes that she committed, the actions that she took were indefensible in many cases.</s>BANFIELD: I want to talk a little bit about the fact that this is a trial with two victims. We talked about five in total, but this trial pertains to just your son Luke and a friend, Max Tillit. And Max died before your son died. And what is sort of just so ironic about all of this is was that, as I understand it, Luke was very affected by the death of his friend Max, and called you to tell you that this had happened. What did you do from that moment forward?</s>RONNEI: Well, the really kind of ironic thing or the</s>BANFIELD: I think we -- we`re hearing little bits and pieces, Colleen, from you. I think we`ve got a sketchy cell phone setup. I`m sorry. Can I just...</s>RONNEI: Is this better?</s>BANFIELD: Yes, I think I can hear you now. But I want to ask you about this idea that the alleged drug dealer murderer was in her car with kids at a time that you say you witnessed her selling to your son, and you did something. You drove right up beside her in that car and said something to her. Take me to that moment.</s>RONNEI: I had witnessed her selling drugs to my son on about three occasions at that point in time. And I knew that Luke was -- had -- he had relapsed. He had been in recovery and he was trying very hard to get back into recovery. He didn`t like being an active addiction. And I followed him on one occasion. And he had told me, Mom, she`s got kids in her car. She`s always got these little kids in the back seat of her car. And so I pulled up alongside of her after I had witnessed her selling drugs, and I just -- I rolled down my window and I looked at her and I said, If you sell drugs to my son one more time, I will ram your car and I -- every policeman within a mile will be here, and you will be done. And she just looked at me, and I drove off because I didn`t know what else to do.</s>BANFIELD: Well, and if you`re dealing with a dealer, you don`t know what they might have, as well. You know, Colleen, it`s -- the defense that Beverly Burrell, code name Ice, gives is that addicts have numerous sources. And it is true. Addicts do have numerous sources. How do you get past that? What -- how can you prove that Luke only got his drugs from her, thus her drugs killed Luke?</s>RONNEI: Well, because Luke had been -- I mean, in terms of somebody who struggles with the disease of addiction, Luke only struggled - - "only" I say, but for two years. And of that two years, about 12 months of that time he was in recovery. And he wanted to be clean and so he was, like, You got to help me, Mom. I mean, we -- as a family, we were together and we were on a family plan with his cell phone. And so I monitored his calls and his text messages, and I could tell when he was leaving the house or there was behavior attached that might indicate buying drugs. I would block those phone calls. Those messages that -- that phone number, her phone number, and she was the only person that he bought from. She never ran out of drugs to sell.</s>BANFIELD: Looking of the pictures of your son on the screen, Colleen, he`s a beautiful kid. He really is. And I know that people watching might have two opinions. They might say, That`s a tragedy that that child died. That`s your child, and that is an illness. Addiction is an illness. And there are other people that say he`s grown up enough to take the chances if he`s going to take drugs. Do you struggle ever? Are you ever angry about what happened? Are you -- how do you feel about this battle in America, an opioid addiction, a fight, and also, an attempt for many to blame the victims of this a lot when they are ill?</s>RONNEI: Well, and I think that comes from just completely not understanding that addiction is a disease, that these people -- you know, that anybody who struggles with a disease chooses it. In Luke`s case, he didn`t knowingly use. The first time he was introduced to heroin, he was not aware of what he was using. And for Luke and his case, he -- once we went through that door, there was no coming back through it again. I mean, he went down the rabbit hole, and that was it for him. And I think for many people who think that they might be able to experiment with this drug or use it a few times and it`ll be fine, they have no clear understanding of what a horrible, evil drug this is. It is like none other.</s>BANFIELD: Well, Colleen, listen, I`m going to thank you on national television for being this brave because we are in crisis in this country, and beautiful kids like yours are dying at record numbers, lots of people, moms, sisters, brothers, dads. And they are not guttersnipes. And they are not, you know, those from the `70s that we thought had gone down a long life of drug abuse and made their choices. This is happening, as you said, almost lickety-split. And so I applaud you for doing this, Colleen. I also want to bring in Jon Justice into this conversation, if I can. He`s the host of `Justice and Drew" on KTLK, Twin Cities News Radio. Jon, there -- the case involving Luke and Max that Colleen was just talking about -- those are two victims. But the allegations are that Beverly Burrell, Ice, killed five. What is the story on the other three? Why are they separated? Why are there several trials? Are there more than -- you know, is there more than one other trial coming? How are they -- how are they -- what are the mechanics of this?</s>JON JUSTICE, KTLK: Well, at this point in time, there hasn`t been a specific reason that I`ve seen as to why the Luke Ronnei and Max Tillit case went first. My understanding of all the evidence so far has been that they`ve had the most evidence attached to it. And you know, listening to Colleen, I think the biggest reason why, certainly in Luke Ronnei`s case, his is going first even before Max Tillit is because of her involvement, the amount of information and evidence that she was able to give to law enforcement, confronting this woman, and the overwhelming amount of evidence of contact to show that this was the person that gave these drugs to her son that ultimately killed him. And I think the same rings true for Max Tillit. Once these cases wrap up -- and as she said, the Ronnei case wrapped up today -- the judge will have one to seven days before he`ll render his verdict. And then for Max Tillit, both sides will present their cases, and that will wrap up sometime in July. And then after that, Hennepin County will move forward in those other three cases. Now, the suspect, Beverly Burrell, hasn`t been directly attached to those cases yet. But when you look at the evidence, it`s littered with just information of how much contact the three other individuals who also received heroin...</s>BANFIELD: OK, hold that thought. Hold that thought...</s>JUSTICE: ... as well. Yes.</s>BANFIELD: ... for a second. Real quickly, Joey Jackson weigh-in here. When that jury gets the case, will they give the benefit of the doubt from a drug dealer.</s>JACKSON: I think it jury`s like drug dealers, I don`t think - people in general like drug dealers, but I think it could be a stretch to apply this law to a drug dealer in this scenario. For the actual death, there are so many intervening circumstances that could lead to the death and that is, what the jury will be focusing on.</s>BANFIELD: Except people are mad. They had it with heroin overdoses, with babies in the backseat at the stoplight, do you think a jury would say we`re sick of it, too.</s>BOAN: The jury will probably actually think of it. Prosecutors are sick of it and lawmakers are sick of it. You often find on appeal appellate courts don`t uphold these convictions, because they finds that this are hard to prove in terms of proximate cause between the drug dealer dealing the drug and death. This is an amazingly traumatic and horrible incident, I have some concerns and in terms of how an appellant court might view this in terms of whether or not this lady actually cause the death.</s>BANFIELD: Well I want to thank (inaudible) for being so brave and going publicly about this, this is the kind of voice that everybody needs to hear. I`ll ask the two of you to stand by. A mystery in the Bermuda triangle tonight, you haven`t heard that for a while, right? The search continues for survivors of a small plane crash. Jennifer Blooman and her two young sons and pilot Nathan O`rick flying from Puerto Rico to Florida but never got there and air traffic controllers said it was weird. They last radar contact 37 miles you guessed it east of Bahamas, Bermuda triangle. Earlier today coastguard confirms the discovery of debris identified as components of the missing plane. Search for the passengers and of course for the plane as well continue. We know that thieves aren`t always the sharpest tools in the shed but sometimes they aren`t the most great or coordinated, either. Got the proof in Canada, there she goes, dope. Wow. I love this. Woman caught on surveillance trying to make a quick escape from an Ontario Wal-Mart literally tripping over her own silly feet. CTV new reports that the suspect was trying to lift more than $650 worth of merchandise, I am not sure how she was going to load it into the car because the Wal-Mart guy is running after her. They say she is likely in her 40s and probably helped by two men and three women and asking for anybody that knows anything for help. She is responsible for over $1,000 in thefts like that maybe in the week before. She is not very good at her job. When a car plows into a store after hours, you usually think a burglary is about to happen next but not in the case I`m about to show you. There is surveillance video from the state trailer supply store in Arizona and it is not your regular smash and grab. Watch. There he goes, circling the parking lot making choices, finally deciding to bulldoze the store. The driver goes right through, gets caught on surveillance. You think it`s going to stop there. No, no, no, no, no does a full you turn and guns for the exit.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m surprised it went through because the doors are probably a couple hundred pounds. I first saw somebody was knocking down the doors to steal products which happened in prior employment I had.</s>BANFIELD: Police are still looking out for this driver. Car is mid 2000 silver or gray Chevy cobalt. There is a $1,000 reward and I don`t think that is their car, because who would do that for fun to their own car? Usually take someone else and do that. A Texas mother killed by a drunk driver and it wasn`t the drivers first time at the rodeo, wasn`t his second. How on earth does this happen? How do you get multiple DUI convictions and you yet still get to get behind the wheel after having a whole lot of drinks with your pals? Wait until you find out who he killed.