Michelle Yeoh

Now streaming, Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh takes command.

Don't miss Star Trek Section 31. Now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.

In Section 31, a new Star Trek original movie on Paramount+.

The defendant is not guilty. Raise your hand.

I had a romantic relationship with him. He had engaged in sexual relations?

He kissed me, and it progressed from there.

He wasn't in love with her. He would say she was a good person, but she was cold. He would call her a manna.

The refrigerator brand.

When it happened, when it started happening, everybody was scared.

You know, it can happen to anybody. We're scared. We don't want to die.

The last girl's body they found buried in his yard.

This guy is a monster.

First time I dated him in this parking lot, but like it was a medical center parking lot.

And after the date was done, he said, can you get me some crack?

From there on out, he was a regular of mine.

He tipped me good and always smoked crack.

I can remember the summer that they started turning up dead. August 26, 1997.

I can remember the summer that they started turning up dead.

I went out there and worked anyway.

Now streaming, Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh takes command.

Don't miss Star Trek Section 31. Now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.

In Section 31, a new Star Trek original movie on Paramount+. Section 31 is just a place for people to bend the rules.

Yeah, I know. I just I can't stop even thinking about it. When he went up on stand and explained. Why were you looking for apartments in Ukraine?

He said he was going to make a documentary on the Ukraine war like Sean Penn did.

Well, the Ukraine war had not started at the time of those Google searches. So that's what I'm saying. That's why when he went on stand, it was just like everything got debunked.

Yeah, that was a sad conversation. I spoke with his sister, Alison Pierce, who has nothing to do with the family now and blames David Pierce for destroying the fabric of her family. And she says that Ron Jeremy was like, worshipped in their household. So he idolized Ron Jeremy. Alison, of course, didn't like any of that. And she plans to give an impact statement.

She wants everyone to know that he is, in a sense, a villain. And she feels terrible for what happened to Christy and Hilda and what he's done to so many people.

That says a lot. I was really surprised he said that to you. It was sort of a humanizing moment for a defense attorney.

He said, I know they were held against their will in that apartment. And he was right.

Yeah. Yeah. No, he he he was doing the best to be the best defense attorney. And I think he did succeed in that. But he was wrestling with a moral and ethical dilemma, it felt like. And that was David Pierce.

Difficult. I mean, yes, difficult. He stole the jury list. He stole his documents. He was trying to create a mistrial and say that he knew the jury.

Well, we don't know exactly how he got his hands on them, but the judge addressed in court that he was taking court documents. And he was warned twice, I believe, throughout the trial to stop this behavior.

Exactly.

We have him on camera. Of course he has his mask on, but he's slowly shaking his head like no, no, no, no, no real emotional response besides his head shaking.

He was in absolute shock. I will never forget it. I mean, he was in that adrenaline of trying to figure this out. I remember when we sat on his couch, he had a group of friends in the back kitchen, and he said, I have to have them stay with me at all times. I'm scared what I'll do with myself if they leave. And so it's the worst of the worst. And

So the latest is Pierce fired his attorney and plans to file a motion for a new trial. The state has not announced their decision regarding Brant Osborne.

Yeah, you know, I can't stress enough how much myself and I know our whole team truly cares about Christy, Hilda, the victims and their families, we've gotten to know them so well. And I am mostly so inspired and amazed at all the 12 women who testified and came forward bringing justice to two women. who went out to have fun one night and came in the hands of a very dangerous man, David Pierce.

And they fought for those women. And in doing so, they fought for their own stories.

Thank you, Jonathan. It's been such an honor to work with you on this one.

I was personally really touched. And I was also very impressed. He said I would go to the ends of the earth for my wife. And that is what he did.

Absolutely. And this was a case where, oh, looks like they were partying, they were doing drugs. Very easy to write this case off. So early on, Jan posted on social media about the case, looking for information. And he received messages from women who had bad experiences with Mr. Pierce, who were sexual assault victims themselves. And he had encouraged them to go forward to police.

The woman who lived there was about to call the 911 and her husband said, no, no, you don't want to mess with David Pierce. Just let it go. And she ended up not calling, unfortunately. And that just shows how this man sort of instills a sense of fear that, you know, people do not want to mess with him.

No, no. I mean, none of his actions add up. They didn't leave their names at the hospitals. They were disguised, you know, no license plates on the cars, all of that.

First of all, it was one of the most fascinating trials I have ever sat in. There were 12 women in total, seven Jane Does who had allegations of rape by Mr. Pierce and the others' sexual assault experiences. They stacked those women up one by one by one by one, all 12 of them with the same similar eerie stories. I met this man. He promised me a career. He was a Hollywood producer.

He gives me a drink. It tastes a little salty. All of a sudden, I can't remember anything. And the next memory, I wake up and there's someone on top of me. You know, it's story after story after story. And then the prosecution brings in Christy and Hilda's story. It was a really powerful way to prove... this man's pattern and how he preys off of power and control.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

She was scared of David Pierce ever seeing the light of day, you know, if there was a mistrial or something like that. She, you know, described him to me as a very dangerous person. And that's what he does. He intimidates people. He scares them so that they are silent. She told me once I hear that guilty, we will talk.

But until then, she was too scared to do the interview, which I totally respected and appreciated. Jackie is a real inspiration herself. She came to L.A. to go to law school and she was looking for an apartment. And that's how she came across David Pierce through a Craigslist ad. And he had her come to the apartment, offered her a drink. She takes the drink and leaves. Then she's blacked out.

And her next memory, she wakes up and she fights this man off of her. This is how bad she was drugged, was that she couldn't even feel her legs, so she's crawling down his apartment stairs, screaming. And runs to her car and stays in her car long enough to sober up. She truly fought for her life. This forever changed her life, forever haunted her.

She did a lot of work in therapy, and she is a remarkable person. A woman who's become an attorney who wants to help other victims. And she, you know, you will see her on the episode. She stares right at the camera and she's brave and speaks for Christy. She speaks for Hilda.

She speaks for herself and she speaks for all the women who've been silenced by Mr. Pierce and who've been harmed by Mr. Pierce.

Yeah, the women who testified sometimes had a hard time pointing him out because they couldn't recognize him.

He just was stripped down. The real David Pierce was sitting there in court.

I mean, I only wish cameras were in the courtroom because that was a show in itself. And originally he asked the judge to give a narrative, testify through a narrative, meaning he wanted to control what he was putting out there. He didn't want to be cross-examined like everybody else has to be.

Yeah.

everything about this man is unusual. And the judge said, no, this isn't the David Pierce show. So then he said, well, then I'm not going to testify then. And then he changed his mind at the last minute and he's up there. And my God, it was something I've never seen before. Basically, he said that all the women who They all wanted him. Everything was consensual.

And even one Jane Doe, the Jane Doe that we interviewed, he says, I've never even met that woman in my life.

Straight out lying about that night they came home to his home. I didn't give them drugs. I was walking my puppy while they were in my house. I mean, it was all wild. And there was no remorse. There was no sense of like, I'm so sorry. Nothing.

This is a case that started just as a headline of two women dropped at separate hospitals. We really didn't know if it was just a drug overdose case, a tragic drug overdose. But about six days into this, I met with Jan Sillier, who is Christy's husband. He looked at me in the eyes and he said, trust me, this is foul play. You know, I know my wife. I know something happened.

The prosecution and the cops say that all the evidence the state provided contradicts his story.

LAPD detective sent me over the Google searches. So I have them right here. We have international money transfers, best places in the world to disappear, best places to meet girls in Kyiv, Ukraine, strip clubs, exotic massages and sex in Kyiv. brothels in Kyiv, nightlife in Kyiv, one-way flights, apartments in Kyiv. How can you track someone by their passport number?

And lastly, penis enlargement.

I wasn't making a lot of money as a teller, and so I would work at the bank during the day, and I would dance at night.

No, they did not. They did not.

Did you have a college degree? I did not have a college degree. And a high school degree? I did not have a high school diploma. I lied on my application because it was the only way I could get a good job and a better future for myself.

We were held for 14 hours all night long until the next morning when it was time to, as they said, go to work. That meant go rob the bank on that day. They duct taped dynamite to our backs. He showed us a device that he said was a detonation device. He said, if you don't do everything perfect, your daughter will blow up first, you will blow up next. So don't screw this up.

Suddenly, I'm the mastermind. Suddenly, I orchestrated the entire thing. It never dawned on me that I would be a suspect. I automatically assumed that everyone would know that I was the innocent victim.

I was on the verge of a full-blown breakdown. It was not a good situation.

I was dealing with a very devastated seven-year-old girl. She didn't talk a lot after that for a long time. She was very withdrawn and very clingy and a completely different child than who she was before this.

We had gotten home right around 6.30. The sun was setting, and we were getting ready to go into the house and make homemade pizzas. I was a single mother, and my daughter loved when we got to spend time together. We decided to sit down on the couch and play some Game Boy to unwind from the day. And then everything was completely shattered in one blink of an eye.

And ten days after the robbery... I got a phone call from the district attorney saying that we caught them. My immediate words were, is it the people that were in my bank? And they said, yeah, it was.

I found out that these people were involved in gang activity and these are scary individuals.

They didn't say, we think you're innocent but we're doing our job. They didn't say, we have to investigate because this is our job. They didn't do any of that.

I wish four people being arrested was the end of the story. I wish. It wasn't.

They said, they're going to bring your character into question. They're going to bring your past up.

There's no possible way to prepare for what was about to happen.

Every single emotion you can imagine was just coming at me like darts.

I start feeling anxiety when I'm approaching the house.

At what point did he concoct this story of meeting me? During his interrogation, he never, ever once mentioned knowing me, dating me, my being the ringleader.

lived in my dream house pretty much. It was up on top of a hill. It was overlooking the ocean.

They were with us for a long time, many hours.

Yeah, they didn't want me to do it.

There was not one single move that I was going to make incorrectly. It was something that I wanted to participate in. So what did it matter?

I'm going to be brave no matter what.

There were a lot of emotions that were coming over me.

I felt very, very safe. I felt like we were far away from everything.

Its motive, as far as the defense is concerned, it means you needed money. According to them, but I was making my payments on time. I was paying everyone back.

I knew without a doubt it was the exact same voice of the woman who had come into my bank and said, hey, Chris.

She was always calling. You may think you told them. I know I told them.

I started becoming very defensive about what they were saying about me. She fought me all the way, which I love. He was intimidating. She was edgy.

He was tough for me.

I was a mess.

It just took the breath out of me. It took the fight out of me. Michelle finally finished her testimony. I really was blindsided by this in a lot of ways.

It was like it wasn't real. Oh, my God, my daughter. They pointed their guns at Michelle and Bria. I was just begging for her life. Please don't hurt her. Please don't hurt her.

It's a chess game. Whoever's the better player wins.

I wanted to hear the words guilty for what they had done.

No pictures, not a phone record, not one person that ever saw us together, not one single thing to support this guy's claims.

Horrible. Terrible. Beat myself up for a really long time about being so weak up there.

I do, and I get pissed about it. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? My daughter is my world.

She still has nightmares sometimes. So do I. And when they come, we know how to talk about it and not let it rule our lives.

Without this ever happening, I don't know that I would ever found something I'm so passionate about. Oh, good.

I need to grab control over something.

My focus is, the center focus is, for me now, is about healing. It's about not letting things in your life that happen to you keep you down. I get emails from people and phone calls that say, you have no idea how much you've helped me. That's worth a million bucks.

We know everything about you. We know you have a roommate when she coming home. And most important of all, they knew where she worked. We know you're the bank manager. That's why we're here, because you're going to get us the money out of the vault of that bank or you're going to die.

They threatened us all night long. Okay. I was counting the minutes to the end of my life.

At that point, they were really, really graphic with their sexual talk, super, super bad.

He was sort of giving the orders and he was really in control and he was the one with the walkie-talkie radio.

I think I know who these people are. And it just clicked in that I started paying attention to everything.

The weight of their lives was enormous for me.

I just told her she was everything, everything I'd ever wanted, that she was perfect, and that we're a team. And she said, just be brave, Mommy. She was telling you to be brave? Oh, yeah. She's only seven years old. Seven. She's like, I know you're coming back, Mommy. I know you're going to come back.

Every step I took with that dynamite was like a tick of a bomb. Every second. I can't mess up. I can't make one wrong turn in my car. I've got to do everything right if we have any chance of saving anybody's lives.

The back door to our house just came crashing in with a sound that is completely indescribable. There were three men all dressed in black and masked, rushing towards us, SWAT style, in a line. They grabbed us, threw us to the floor. One man was on my back with guns to my head, and the duct tape started to unroll and rip.

That's your cue. And that's the cue. I grabbed my briefcase. That was odd. I went to the vault.

Once inside, Michelle told her what had happened. She started panicking and going, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. She couldn't speak. And I lifted up my shirt and I said, look what's on my back. I'm going to blow up if I'm not out of here in five minutes. You need to help me. I have to rob the bank.

I just remember my hand reaching for the money and stuffing the duffel bag. And within minutes, she cleaned out the vault. Do not call the police. If you call the police, we're dead.

He let me out of the Jeep. I was to walk back to where my Jeep would be waiting, and then I was to go straight home.

Is this going to be the second that I'm going to blow up? Is this going to be the step that's going to end my daughter's life?

I thought for sure once they get what they want, once they get the money, we're dead. They don't want witnesses.

Michelle Renee raced back to the house. All I knew was that's where my daughter was. Nothing else mattered. All I could think of was getting back to her.

I just wanted to grab her and never, never, ever let go of her. I just wanted to hold her. Hold her, she did. I was crouched down. I was just right in front of her, holding her, getting the tape off of her. It hit me right then. Oh, my gosh. I've got dynamite on my back.

My daughter was out of sight, couldn't hear her, didn't know what was going on, and I was screaming for our life. There's three of them. There's nothing, absolutely nothing I could have done to protect her. I'm Michelle Renee, and I was kidnapped and held hostage along with my seven-year-old daughter.

That's where you went. The gate was closed. And so we began pushing the button frantically and saying, please let us in. Please let us in. We've been kidnapped. We've been held hostage all night long. Let us in. Let us in.

He handed me a business card that said on the spot photography and with his name on the card.

Have you seen him at any other time? No, I told you. I saw him in the bank. He came in and pretended to be a potential customer. That's all. They find this implausible.

I mean, I hadn't thought about my past in years. I left that behind so long ago. And all of a sudden, here it is.

I loved it. Really? Yep. I loved it. You liked the attention? Liked the attention. Liked the music and the fact that I could disappear on stage.

And a lot of it was because I knew that he knew that she had told me. And I recently started thinking about the way he looked at me. I think he wanted to kill me.

wanted George Hodel to go to jail because George Hodel was the one who was making all the money, first of all, and he was supporting all the people surrounding this tale.

The relationship was just so monstrous and sad for her.

Starfleet is here to make sure no one commits murder.

I met Tamar when I was 14 and she was 23.

This is how she'd grown up, in this crazy environment with her father, and she had obviously been used as a sexual object with him and his friends. It was all amazing to me.