my co-anchor dan abrams has the emotional new testimony in our series "crime and punishment." >> pretty much split it down the middle and the whole side is here for my dad. >> jennifer shaw was here in court this week, pleading for her father's freedom. >> i never thought that i would be able to have kids and it was quite the blessing when my daughter was born and she was healthy. it was a very emotional time for my whole family. >> reporter: her dad, curtis reeves, accused of murdering a father in a florida movie theatre during the previews last month. wnlss say a single shot came during an argument over the use of a cell phone. another moviegoer immediately called 911. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> there's been a gunshot at the cobb theatre. >> do you know who shot? >> i don't know. it looks like an older gentleman in the movie theatre. >> desperate attempts to save chad olsen's life can be heard on the line. >> breathe, buddy, breathe. >> is he talking? >> he's braet breathing. >> did you check the pulse? >> it looks like blood is going to his lungs. his pulse is weak. we need a

let's bring in dan abrams, and from atlanta, nancy grace, good morning to both of you. nancy, start with you. are you surprised by this verdict and what do you make of it? >> well, i'm not surprised because you could see it coming. as early as friday night, they were saying we're hung up on one charge, but we have a verdict on the other charges. that clearly indicated the problem was the murder charge. that was the only charge of the five that was really different from the other charges. now this is true, he's got to do 60 years. because in florida they have what's called 10-20 life. which mean it is you commit an assault with a gun, you can't run it concurrently. it's got to be 20 plus 20 plus 20. but what i think happened, i think that they decided that right or wrong, dunn believed he was under attack by jordan davis. so they could not agree, even on a lesser on davis. but as to the other three boys in the car, that that was attempted murder too. i am dissatisfied, but i'm not going to come down out jury because they really gave it their all. >> and i don't know that

final little note, just to check out on a -- >> dan abrams, we love you. >>> all right, moving on. stick around. we want you to hear about this. how to get the look of the stars only a professional makeup artist can give you but without the sky high cost. it's a new kind of grooming on the go service and abc's sara haines checked it out. > reporter: glamming up for a night out can get complicated like this scene from "clueless." >> i'm still all red. >> reporter: now you can get fab without the fuss. pucker a new store in new york city is offering professional makeup services minus the celebrity price tag. >> hi. i'm sara. >> welcome to pucker. >> reporter: pucker features an express makeup bar offering full makeup application for 45 minutes and $50 and the quickie, $35 for 25 minutes. ceo and co-founder is the brain behind the beauty. highway did you come up with the idea behind pucker? >> it came about if my own needs to get my makeup done. i was a stay at home mom. >> reporter: hiyam teamed up with julio sandino who made up a-listers like angelina jolie. creating this makeup mec

i'm dan abram ps in the months leading up to the olympics in sochi, russia's anti-gay propaganda laws spotlight. but what do those laws mean for the people actually living there? we traveled to russia to find out what it reelsly like to be gay in moscow. the answer? it can be ugly, violence, persecution and worse. we spent months inside and often underground for a special edition of "nightline" moscow is burning. >> what a show russia is putting on. the 22nd winter olympic games. personal triumph of for vladimir putin and the russia he rules. but there is another russia far away from the spotlight where we heard a very different story. >> whew! >> reporter: this is central station in downtown moscow, russia's largest gay nightclub. here, gays have come for years to meet friends, maybe fall in and out of love. and enjoy their own show. the famous, flamboyant drug performance. ♪ i need a hero ♪ holding on for a hero till the end of the night ♪ >> reporter: but now, the curtain may be about to fall here for good because one by one, the people here who feel like outcasts in their own home

how the media divided two continents with an expert on the case, dan abrams of abc news. and what unites us, the super bowl may just be television's last great communal event. let the cynics call it the corporate bowl. for hundreds of millions of us, it's good, old-fashioned american fun. we'll get to all of that this morning but up first, governor chris christie, explosive new allegations he knew more about the george washington bridge traffic scandal than he admitted. since bridge gate first broke, the story about christie's staffers scheming to close off part of the bridge for political reasons, christy has denied knowing anything about it in advance. for weeks reporters haven been digging looking for evidence of what christy knew and when he knew it. on friday afternoon what looked like a big scoop from "the new york times" in a letter the lawyer for david wildstein the man that oversaw the lane closings said this, i'm quoting, evidence exists tying mr. christy to having knowledge of the lane closures. when the times story about the letter first appeared it said that

dan abrams, thanks very much. >> dan, you'll be back.y is out a little bit later. >> and i have a red tie. just letting you know. i don't want to give too much of a tease. not too much of a tease. >> wardrobe change. you've been warned. >>> now to that stunning hidden camera experiment every parent will want to see. it shows how people react when a child is being kidnapped right in front of them. so -- how many try to do the right thing? abc's abbie boudreau has the story. >> reporter: watch this young boy, the man you see with him appears to be a stranger trying to coax the boy to go with him. >> i have candy, i have tv. >> reporter: watch what happens when the boy tries to get help. >> this man in a jacket -- shaking the stranger's hand. thankfully this kidnapping is actually a staged scene. the boy and the alleged stranger are in on it but the people they encounter are not and this morning, the hidden camera experiment is going viral with nearly 2 million views in just a few days. yousef erakat filmed it posing as the kidnapper. he wa

. >> let's talk about it with dan abrams. we just saw the picture of trayvon martin there. is dead right now. stand your ground is being talked about. are the cases really similar? >> look, apart from the fact that they were both unarmed, they're not that similar and the key difference is that in the george zimmerman case in my view the most important piece of evidence was the fact that he had injuries on the back of his head. why was that so important? because that forced the prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't actually fear great bodily injury. didn't reasonably believe he could have that or death inflicted upon him. here there is no evidence of injury. there is no gun. it's that combination that is going to make this a much, much harder defense than george zimmerman. >> does he mean he cannot succeed? >> no, and, look, the key is really going to be self-defense. he did not seek a stand your ground hearing. remember, one of the most controversial parts of it is it lets you try and avoid a trial and go to a judge and say i shouldn't be tried at al

abc news legal analyst dan abrams has one theory. >> it is possible that a juror or two got caught up on whether the first set of bull lets may have been self-defense and yet the other bull lets that were fired, they may have felt were simply no way to justify that. >> reporter: the state's attorney vows michael dunn will be back in this courthouse before long for a retrial on that first degree murder count. not that another conviction would change dunn's fate. at this point, he will be locked up until he's at least 107 years old. david? >> ryan owens tonight. ripe, thank you. >>> the other major story this evening, the massive storm in parts of the west and the avalanche, moving in so quickly, two skiers were lost. they did not have a chance. abc's clayton sandell on the mounting death toll from several avalanches in just the last week. >> reporter: tonight, two skiers found dead in colorado, swept away saturday when their group triggered this avalanche. powerful enough to topple pine trees. in just the past week, avalanches have killed eight people. and tonight, a system bringing fl

more from our chief legal affairs anchor dan abrams.e heard linsey say the defense attorney say an average person would never have been brought to trial. >> it's true. even if she's convicted of this misdemeanor, she likely won't face any jail time. these cases don't go to trial. you resolve these cases with a violation. you don't end up bothering with a jury trial on something like this. remember, they agree on most of the facts here. they agree that she seems to have accidentally taken this drug. the legal question is, should she then have gotten off the road? meaning did she have the wherewithal to know i need to get off the road now because i'm a danger. there's no question she was a danger. the question is should she be held legally responsible for that in a misdemeanor trial? >> it seems like the lawyers are trying to hammer home this idea of celebrity justice in the trial. they keep bringing up the kennedy name. >> i think the defense attorneys want the jury to say, what are we doing here? why are we here? the reason we're here i

let's get more on this from dan abrams.e from the jury after three hours, they wanted to see the surveillance video. >> right. this is video from inside the station where you can hear the shots. the prosecution introduced this evidence. i think that is not something the defense is going to be particularly excited about. because, when you listen to the shots being fired on that surveillance tape, you hear a pause. you hear the bang, bang, bang. and then you hear another volley. and that's part of the problem here for the defense in claiming self-defense, is it's not as if he just sort of shoots to keep the person away. sounds like a volley of shots followed by another. it makes it a problem for self-defense. >> you say the defense has not put up much of a defense. should the jury get through this quickly? >> i think they have put up a real defense by having him testify. i think the evidence, though. the inconsistencies, with regard to his account. the police statement versus what he's saying on the stand. the issue of whethe

let's talk about this with abc's chief legal affairs anchor dan abrams.e policy. >> that's right. they're calling witnesses to say that she was in dire financial straits. but most importantly, the one thing that she wasn't going to do when she was suffering financially was not pay the premiums on that insurance policy. >> on her ex-husband. >> that's right. they're divorced and they want to call witnesses to say she was borrowing money. she was making sure that those premiums were paid off. they say that's the motive and the other key to the case becomes linking her to young -- to her alleged boyfriend. >> taking a long time to build this case. this happened 20 years ago. what is the defense strategy in this? >> the defense strategy is broadly to impose reasonable doubt. but what they want to do, look at other possible suspects here. this is a guy who a lot of people were after. this is a guy who was involved in a lot of lawsuits, owed a lot of people money, had a lot of enemies, the defense saying that's the place to look. >> so in some ways they want to

let's talk to dan abrams and this case coming into focus and it's not a stand your ground case. >> let'se table for a minute. there's no issue about the duty to retreat. there's no hearing before the trial to try to get it dismissed this. is classic self-defense. he is saying he reasonably believed that he was in danger of for his safety or his life. >> that eyewitness we saw right there undercutting that claim. >> oh, that's a crucial witness. i mean, if he is saying as this eyewitness said, you know, you're not going to talk to me that way. that's not self-defense, that's rage, that's anger and that's a big problem for the defense. >> and the defense does have this theory, no gun was found on the scene with teenagers but they have some kind of a theory that the teens had a gun and then ditched it. >> the defense needs there to be a gun. without a gun it is hard to see how this defense prives here meaning, again, what was reasonably going through his mind, so he says it was either a gun or some sort of stick or something like that that was threatening him. now, the only evidence i think

our legal experts dan abrams and nancy grace weigh in. >>> blizzard, a nasty new storm nails the northeastwling winds and heavy snow, causing dangerous whiteout conditions and power outages. now there is a thaw coming, but it may not last long. >>> all in. >> let's start this new chapter with a clean slate. >> millions of americans obsessed with political dramas. "house of cards," "scandal" and "homeland." why even president obama is begging no spoilers, please. >>> and oshie wins sochi.

it also happens to be the same prosecutor but i spoke to abc's legal affairs anchor, dan abrams.e is a difference here. there is no question there was an altercation. it may be hard to prove self-defense. >> and in the same state as well. thank you. >>> let's get an update of the other headlines. ron, over to you. >> hi, again. sorry to interrupt you. actually somebody tweeted me about that. why do you interrupt dan and bianna. i apologize. >> we haven't noticed. we love you nonetheless. >> somebody is. >>> a spoiler alert for those of you following the olympics. that alert is over. the u.s. shining in sochi. don't pay attention if you don't want to know what happened. jaime anderson wins olympic gold in women's snowboard slopestyle. the second gold for the u.s. team. meanwhile in the men's downhill, bode miller finished outside of the medal count. and in turkey, riot police fired water cannons and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators. protestors marched to the main square angry over the government's control over the internet. >>> and former chicago mayor richard bailey. left th

let's bring in our ace legal team, dan abrams, and from atlanta, nancy grace, host of nancy grace on hln. good morning to both of you. nancy, start with you. are you surprised by this verdict and what do you make of it? >> well, i'm not surprised because you could see it coming. as early as friday night, they were saying we're hung up on one charge, but we have a verdict on the other charges. that clearly indicated the problem was the murder charge. that was the only charge of the five that was really different from the other charges. now this is true, he's got to do 60 years. because in florida they have what's called 10-20 life. which means it you commit an ag assault with a gun, you can't run it concurrently. it's got to be 20 plus 20 plus 20. but what i think happened, i think that they decided that right or wrong, dunn believed he was under attack by jordan davis. so they could not agree, even on a lesser on davis. but as to the other three boys in the car, that that was attempted murder too. i am dissatisfied, but i'm not going to come down on that jury because they really gave

. >> let's talk about it with dan abrams. we just saw the picture of trayvon martin there. is dead right now. stand your ground is being talked about. are the cases really similar? >> look, apart from the fact that they were both unarmed, they're not that similar. and the key difference is that in the george zimmerman case, in my view, the most important piece of evidence was the fact that he had injuries on the back of his head. why was that so important? because that forced the prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't actually fear great bodily injury. didn't reasonably believe he could have great bodily injury or death inflicted upon him. here there is no evidence of injury. there is no gun. it's that combination that is going to make this a much, much harder defense than george zimmerman. >> so does that mean that michael dunn cannot succeed understand your ground? >> no, and, look, the key is really going to be self-defense. he did not seek a stand your ground hearing. remember, one of the most controversial parts of it is it lets you try and avoid

. >>> let's bring in abc's chief legal affairs correspondent dan abrams.e video that could be played tomorrow. this obviously could be so significant. >> crucial because it'll help determine was there something thrown. remember, that is his defense, it's something was thrown at him. seems that's the defense. was something thrown? what was thrown? when was it thrown? the timing becomes very important because, remember, there are two questions, number one is self-defense where he is going to say that he reasonably believed that he was in danger of serious bodily injury or death. the other issue is trying to get this down from second degree murder to manslaughter. second degree murder requiring intent and manslaughter being more sort of reckless conduct as if it were a fight. one person responding to the other and so in terms of that determination, the timing becomes really important and the video should be crucial. >> this is florida, but there's no chance of a stand your ground defense, is there? >> he could pursue a stand your ground defense. but not the s

. >> let's bring in abc's chief legal affairs anchor dan abrams. uestions raised by the pathologist. local officials turned this over to the state? >> they tried to. the local district attorney tried to hand it over to the attorney general. the attorney general said premature for us to look at it. i think that's a mistake. there are a lot of questions here about the relationship between the sheriff to various people involved in this story such that four just the sake of the appearance of propriety i think the attorney general should have taken it over. you've got him calling his wife and saying my truck broke down and an hour later his parents come to pick him up at this convenience store. he's not there. from day one they say the authorities say no foul play. they found his clothes, his i.d., his watch and yet the search was still called off after just four days so there are a lot of questions to ask here. >> on the other hand, there was also a fair amount of information showing some at least odd behavior. >> well, no, the authorities -- the local

dan abrams said he thought michael dunn will likely have to testify. do you agree?man didn't take the stand. here's the difference between this one and zimmerman. george zimmerman who gunned down trayvon martin. at least he had a band aid. he did have one band aid on the back of his head. this guy is in his car shooting at another car. another thing the defense will try to bring up, in this case, the alleged perpetrator, michael dunn, is claiming he saw a stick or a pipe or long gun, a shotgun, in the car of the victim, the red durango. when police looked in the car, they found nothing. how does the defense get out of that box? they're going to argue to the jury that three or four days passed, four to be specific, before police searched in dumpsters and bushes. they're going to argue that the teens had time to get rid of the gun. but no gun was ever found. >> and that is key. thanks very much, nancy grace. >>> now to the college basketball star suspended for three games for pushing a fan over the weekend. the confrontation ending in mutual apologies and maybe lesson

dan abrams joins us. we haven't heard from any of the jurors yet. theory how they might have reached this split decision by distinguishing the two vol yis of shots? >> if you read the questions that the jurors sent out. it sounds like at least one of them was taking the self-defense claim seriously with regard to jordan davis. the only way to explain it then is that the jury can't agree on the shots that killed jordan davis. you assume that the first shots were the ones that killed jordan davis. if you actually listen to the surveillance tape, to the shots, you hear the pop, pop, pop. and then a pause. and then the other shots. and what it seems this jury did is say, well, we can't unanimously agree, beyond a reasonable doubt on the murder charge. we can unanimously agree that the second set of shots, that they were attempted murder of everyone else in the car. >> as they were driving away. >> as they were driving away. you're hearing that means a minimum of 60 years in prison. >> why is it necessary to retry him? given the difficulties. we just hea

. >> let's talk to dan abrams about all this right now.s piece, 20-year-old allegations. no charges brought. independent medical examiners said no conclusion. do these new details that are coming forward now, do they change the situation legally at all? >> no, they won't. in large part because the statute of limitations has expired. even if you assume possible extensions that can apply to alleged asaumts on children. the bottom line is under no scenario is it possible that charges will be filed at this point. and remember that they did investigate this back in the day. they didn't say we are determining that it did or didn't happen. what they did say is they didn't feel they had enough evidence to move forward. that's one of the tough choices prosecutors have to make everyday. they have to ask themselves two questions in a case like this, number one, do we believe it? and number two, do we believe we can get a conviction. do we believe that we can prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt? it seems that the answer to both questions togethe

abc's dan abrams along with nancy grace, the host of "nancy grace" on hln. how did he do? to testify because he's claiming self-defense and the only testimony really can come from him. he was okay. there are real problems with some of the inconsistencies in his account. i thought that his demeanor was a little problematic. at times he almost -- >> smiled. >> but he also sounded almost legalistic at times as if he were reciting the statute as to what self-defense would entail. so there were a number of problems, but, look, he laid out the basics for his self-defense claim. >> nancy, a lot of people noticed he kind of choked up when he was talking about his dog but not about the killing. >> yes, i noticed that too. he was extremely smug and he even went so far as to say, i don't know why the prosecution didn't bring on my police interrogation tapes. well, be careful what you ask for. for you will surely get it because after the state basically forced him to take the stand by not introducing those tapes thereby his story never got in front of the jury, he had to take the stan

. >>> we'll turn to dan abrams, here for more.but let's begin with the big headline. seriously? >> yeah. i mean, this is one of these defenses where your shake your head and say, this makes the legal system look terrible. i mean, this is a desperate defense, right? this is a defense where you have him on audio, they have audio of him committing the crime. they've got confessions. and you're not even having insanity defense here. she not saying i'm not guilty by reason of insanity. he's asking in essence for a lesser conviction because he didn't have is the requisite intent. meaning he is so lost his mind in effect that he couldn't develop the intent required. there is no way that this defense is going to succeed. >> i'm not in any way comparing the two cases fwlu are echos of a case in texas the affluenza case, the teenager was driving drunk, wasn't sent to prison because he was so drunk. >> that's the case that people mention. huge differences, though, between the cases. that was a juvenile case in juvenile court. it wasn't reall

abc news legal analyst dan abrams has one theory. >> it is possible that a juror or two got caught up on whether the first set of bullets may have been self-defense. and yet the other bullets fired they may have felt were simply no way it justify that. >> >> reporter: state attorney vows michael d dunn will be bk in this courthouse before long to face retrial on the first degree murder count. not that yet another conviction will change dunn's fate. at this point he will be locked up until he is at least 107 years old. ryan owens, abc news, jacksonville, florida. >> there have been two more fatal avalanches in the west. one person killed and another injured yesterday in a slide in the frenchman's creek of area of idaho. in two skiers died during avalanche in lake county, colorado. emergency officials say they were among a group of seven skiers on star mountain who triggered the slide. three other skiers were hospitalized. >>> in the northeast, the latest powerful nor'easter dumped up to 15 inches of snow over parts of new england. leaving thousands shivering in their cold dark homes. t

you see on the slopes there, ylet's slopest let's talk to dan abrams and this case coming into focus's not a stand your ground case. >> let's just put that off the table for a minute. there's no issue about the duty to retreat. there's no hearing before the trial to try to get it dismissed this. is classic self-defense. he is saying he reasonably believed that he was in danger of for his safety or his life. >> that eyewitness we saw right there undercutting that claim. >> oh, that's a crucial witness. i mean, if he is saying as this eyewitness said, you know, you're not going to talk to me that way. that's not self-defense, that's rage, that's anger and that's a big problem for the defense. >> and the defense does have this theory, no gun was found on the scene with teenagers but they have some kind of a theory that the teens had a gun and then ditched it. >> the defense needs there to be a gun. without a gun it is hard to see how this defense prives here meaning, again, what was reasonably going through his mind, so he says it was either a gunri. >> we hope that they do. all right,