How did Texas teen Cayley Mandadi die? Her mother and father discover a clue in her boyfriend’s automotive

Cayley Mandadi, 19, was a sophomore at Trinity College when she was delivered to a Texas hospital on Oct. 29, 2017. She was practically bare, bruised and never respiration. Her someday boyfriend Mark Howerton instructed docs they’d taken ecstasy at a music competition and she or he handed out after consensual intercourse in his automotive. She died on the hospital.

In February 2018, authorities charged Howerton with Mandadi’s homicide, alleging her explanation for dying was blunt power trauma to the top. A 12 months later, Howerton’s trial ended with a hung jury.

A brand new trial was set for 2023. Mandadi’s mom Alison Steele and stepfather Lawrence Baitland believed for the second trial jurors wanted extra details about what occurred inside Howerton’s automotive. Steele, a scientist, and Baitland, a NASA engineer, launched their very own investigation.

”I wanted to have the ability to present the jury what occurred to Cayley,” Baitland instructed ”48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant.

Utilizing post-mortem pictures and consulting with consultants, they developed a principle.

Would the couple’s investigation change the course of the second trial?

CAYLEY MANDADI’S FINAL HOURS

Cayley Mandadi and Taylor Clement, finest pals since ninth grade, had a streak – Snapchatting each morning.

Taylor Clement: Each single day. … She was rather more of a morning individual. So I’d get mine very first thing within the morning.

However on Monday morning, Oct. 30, 2017, there was no phrase from Cayley.

Taylor Clement: I did not get a Snapchat at 8 o’clock within the morning, like I normally do. … That is really how I knew one thing was actually incorrect.

Each good college students, they bonded in science class. Clement says she was immediately drawn to Cayley.

Taylor Clement: She had like, a very infectious smile and the large eyes and like, the loving coronary heart.

The 2 separated to go to totally different faculties. That October morning, Cayley was on Clement’s thoughts.

Taylor Clement: As I am working within the library, it is behind my head, like, I have never heard from her.

Clement did not understand it, however simply hours earlier, Cayley’s mom Alison Steele and stepfather Lawrence Baitland had been woke up at 4 a.m. with horrifying information.

Lawrence Baitland: ”Your daughter’s been concerned in some incident, and she or he has been life-flighted to Kyle, Texas.”

They raced from their residence in Houston to the hospital, praying Cayley was OK.

Peter Van Sant: What was it like while you entered that room? What did you see?

Alison Steele: I noticed my daughter’s physique smashed.

Lawrence Baitland: I may see that she was on a ventilator … and my coronary heart simply stopped. And I knew that it was dangerous.

Inside hours, Cayley’s mother and father had been instructed there was no hope for restoration. Their daughter, simply 19 years previous, as soon as so lively, was quickly declared mind useless. Baitland and Steele need the world to know what occurred to her.

Alison Steele: All that potential had been destroyed. And never figuring out the way it occurred. Or the way it was even attainable.

They invited Cayley’s pals to see her one final time. Clement sat with Steele as she held Cayley’s hand and prayed.

Taylor Clement: I bear in mind her repeating time and again, ”this must be for one thing, this must be for one thing.”

Cayley had beforehand requested that her organs be donated to assist others. As she was taken to surgical procedure for that process, her mother and father mentioned goodbye.

Alison Steele: It was very emotional. … However, after all, we did not wish to let her go. However that is what needed to be.

Simply days earlier than, issues gave the impression to be going nicely for Cayley. A sophomore communications main at Trinity College in San Antonio, she had joined a sorority and was a cheerleader. And she or he’d met a boy.

Alison Steele: Cayley on the time was very a lot in love with the one critical boyfriend she had ever had. His identify was Jett Birchum.

Birchum was a Trinity soccer participant and fraternity brother. Cayley dated him freshman 12 months, however they broke up.

Alison Steele: What she instructed me was, ”I do not know that he desires a critical relationship.” And she or he did.

Taylor Clement: I feel that a part of her life obtained very murky for her very quick.

There was one other man in Cayley’s life. Mark Howerton was 22 years previous and had been a star highschool baseball participant.

Howerton lived in Houston however was typically on Trinity’s campus visiting pals. That is the place he met Cayley.

John Hunter: I feel that they are each very stunning individuals and I feel that that was the first attraction.

John Hunter is Howerton’s lawyer.

John Hunter: I feel that there have been issues along with her relationship with Jett. … And Mark was providing a substitute for that.

Each Jett and Mark knew Cayley was seeing the opposite man and neither, pals say, appreciated the competitors. Then, only one month into this new relationship, Mark Howerton rushes Cayley to a small rural hospital in Luling, Texas.

Whereas medical employees tended to Cayley, cops interviewed Howerton within the quietest place they might discover – the hospital chapel. It was recorded on the officer’s bodycam.

DEPUTY CALENTINE (to Howerton/bodycam video): So inform me, the place had been y’all at as we speak?

Howerton instructed officers that he and Cayley went to the Mala Luna Music Pageant. There they drank alcohol and took MDMA – a drug generally known as Molly or ecstasy.

Christy Jack is an legal professional based mostly in Fort Price. ”48 Hours” requested her to have a look at information on this case. She says issues took a troubling flip on the music competition.

Christy Jack: They noticed Jett Birchum in some unspecified time in the future and started to argue.

Howerton says someday after 4 p.m., he and Cayley left in his Mercedes — nonetheless arguing after Cayley instructed him she nonetheless had emotions for Jett.

MARK HOWERTON (police interview): I used to be just about saying … You could recover from this dude. He ain’t value your time. … your mates are pretend as — I used to be simply telling her all this s*** … I used to be making an attempt to get it by way of her head …

Howerton mentioned they then stopped in a car parking zone the place they’d make-up intercourse.

MARK HOWERTON (police interview): We had been having intercourse. I choked her. However it wasn’t like I used to be killing her. It wasn’t — it wasn’t like that.

Tough, mentioned Howerton, however consensual.

MARK HOWERTON (police interview): 500 p.c consensual.

MARK HOWERTON (police interview): After we had intercourse like she nonetheless talked to me for 5, six, minutes afterwards …That is when she was like, ”I am not feeling good” however then she simply handed out.

They obtained again on the street. Hours handed. Howerton says in some unspecified time in the future Cayley stopped respiration. And he tried to resuscitate her.

Christy Jack: And at 10:30 at night time … he sees an indication … that signifies a hospital … on the subsequent exit. He pulls off.

Emergency medical employees instructed investigators they immediately knew Cayley was in dangerous form. She was practically bare, bruised, and had no pulse.

Christy Jack: You’ve gotten a — a paramedic or a nurse who says these bruises had been on her when she arrived on the hospital in Luling.

MARK HOWERTON (police interview): Why wasn’t she responding? (places his fingers in his lap)

Howerton instructed the police officer Cayley already had bruises on her legs earlier within the day.

MARK HOWERTON (police interview): She bruises straightforward. I – she — look, significantly, she will get drunk, and she or he falls over and she or he bruises.

Police interviewed Howerton a number of instances, however he was not charged with any crime associated to Cayley’s dying. Then, three months later, her post-mortem report was launched. The health worker dominated that Cayley had died from blunt power face and head trauma; it was dominated a murder. Mark Howerton was charged with homicide. He pleaded not responsible and was launched on bail.

John Hunter: There have been giant quantities of medicine taken over the course of this weekend. Mr. Howerton introduced the deceased to a hospital, which is one thing you do not usually see.

Peter Van Sant: Murderers do not normally do this.

John Hunter: No.

John Hunter: The concept that it was open and shut is a mistake.

Because the trial begins, John Hunter says he has proof that may shock the jury.

MARK HOWERTON GOES ON TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF CAYLEY MANDADI

In December 2019, two years after Cayley Mandadi’s disturbing demise, Mark Howerton is lastly delivered to trial for allegedly kidnapping, assaulting and murdering her.

JUDGE:  How do you plead, Mr. Howerton.

MARK HOWERTON:  Not responsible, your honor.

Peter Van Sant: What was it wish to see Mark Howerton within the courtroom?

Alison Steele: Like all people else, I might attempt not to have a look at him an excessive amount of.

The trial begins with prosecutor Alessandra Cranshaw’s opening assertion.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW (in court docket): I feel one of the best ways to inform this story … is to start out the place Cayley Mandadi’s life ended. And that is within the automotive of this defendant.

Prosecutors allege that Howerton forcefully escorted Cayley from the Mala Luna Music Pageant to his automotive. He then drove her to a car parking zone the place he sexually assaulted and beat her, inflicting a deadly mind bleed. Cranshaw introduced pictures exhibiting Cayley’s situation about 18 hours after she arrived on the hospital.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW (in court docket): Cayley is roofed with bruises from head to toe … I imagine that you should have no reservations about discovering this defendant responsible of the offense of homicide.

JOHN HUNTER (in court docket):Issues should not all the time as they appear.

In his opening assertion, protection legal professional John Hunter assaults the very basis of the prosecution’s case.

JOHN HUNTER (in court docket): Mark Howerton didn’t trigger Cayley’s dying.

JOHN HUNTER (in court docket): Nobody noticed something that transpired between Mark Howerton and Cayley Mandadi that night on the twenty ninth. There are not any eyewitnesses.

The state begins its case with paramedic Sharyl Lane, who was driving an ambulance as much as the Luling hospital that night time when a automobile out of the blue appeared behind her.

SHARYL LANE (in court docket): There is a black automotive behind us honking and flashing the lights. … Earlier than I even get out, I see a gentleman that is hollering and screaming. I open the door. He is telling me that — his girlfriend isn’t respiration. And he wants assist.

When Lane seemed inside Howerton’s automotive, she noticed a disturbing scene.

SHARYL LANE (in court docket): She was uncovered … And her pants and her garments … had been within the floorboard by her ft. … She … had bruises on her, simply a number of bruises that I simply bear in mind seeing. … that is once I began CPR.

However Hunter says not everybody on the hospital believed Cayley had been attacked.

John Hunter:  The treating doctor on the Luling hospital– approached this as a drug overdose.

Peter Van Sant: Wasn’t that as a result of Mark had instructed them he thought she had overdosed?

John Hunter: Appropriate. However the signs she was presenting had been in step with that affected person historical past.

Peter Van Sant: Was this lady crushed or not?

John Hunter: No.

Hunter insists the pictures exhibiting bruising on Cayley do not level to foul play.

John Hunter: By the point that the sexual assault nurse … pictures her … she has been resuscitated. Six instances, I imagine. Perhaps eight. … She’s had a chest tube inserted. She’s had IVs positioned on each arms. … She’s been labored over by these physicians on the Luling hospital in a traumatic means.

Whereas the medical workforce fought for Cayley’s life, police interviewed and photographed Mark Howerton. Police officer Chris Adams.

OFFICER CHRIS ADAMS: Whereas I used to be taking pictures of him. I observed … the tops of each of his fingers.

DAVID LUNAN | Prosecutor: Do they give the impression of being pink to you?

OFFICER CHRIS ADAMS: Sure, sir.

DAVID LUNAN: Unusually pink?

OFFICER CHRIS ADAMS: Sure, sir.

Proof, investigators imagine, that Howerton did hit Cayley.

DEPUTY CALENTINE (to Howerton on bodycam): These really do appear to be they’ve scabs already on them.

The Mark Howerton arrested after Cayley’s dying was an enormously muscled, intimidating determine. Cayley’s pals say he used steroids.

Christy Jack: … even in such a confined area. … it will’ve been comparatively straightforward for him to trigger that form of harm to her head.

Howerton initially cooperated with investigators, permitting police to look his Mercedes, the place they discovered a gun and marijuana.

John Hunter: If he was nervous about himself, he would have instructed the police to get a warrant.

As an alternative, Hunter says, Howerton was rather more involved about Cayley.

MARK HOWERTON (police interview): Can I discover out an replace on her, please? Is there any means?

The one one that may counter Howerton’s story was useless. Investigators hoped Cayley’s stays would possibly converse on her behalf. Dr. Suzanna Dana carried out the post-mortem and mentioned the proof exhibits Cayley was crushed to dying.

DR. SUZANNA DANA (in court docket): She had a lot of what I name blunt power accidents to her face and her head. …

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW: And what’s this that we see behind the ear?

DR. SUZANNA DANA:  That is a bruise. That is a contusion.

However throughout cross-examination, Hunter will get Dana to confess that at the least one Cayley’s accidents was attributable to her medical care.

JOHN HUNTER (in court docket): So CPR may cause a variety of totally different accidents, not simply merely superficial ones. Proper

DR. SUZANNA DANA: Sure. 

JOHN HUNTER: On this case, a rib was damaged. Is that appropriate.

DR. SUZANNA DANA:  I imagine so. Sure.

Regardless of the jury thinks about how Cayley died, they’re about to study a lot extra about her troubled love life with Howerton.

A DEFENSE WITNESS MAKES A STUNNING CLAIM

Within the agonizing remaining hours of Cayley Mandadi’s life, her pals gathered to say goodbye. Cayley’s childhood buddy Taylor Clement met her faculty pals for the primary time. They bonded speaking about Cayley.

Taylor Clement: Even in that scenario, she was bringing individuals shut that may’ve by no means met earlier than.

A few of these pals now nervously wait to testify in Howerton’s homicide trial.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW (in court docket): Do you acknowledge this individual?

MORGAN SAMPSON: I do.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW: Who is that this particular person?

MORGAN SAMPSON (voice breaking): It is Cayley.

Her roommate, Morgan Sampson, instructed of a stormy historical past between Cayley and Howerton, together with one notably disturbing incident just some weeks earlier than Cayley’s dying. She was planning to go to a celebration and says Howerton obtained upset when she invited Cayley to come back alongside.

MORGAN SAMPSON (in court docket): Mark and Cayley had been out on the balcony. And he had thrown her up in opposition to the brick wall —

Cayley ended up going to that celebration in opposition to Howerton’s needs. Quickly, neighbors reported listening to loud banging in Cayley’s room. Campus police officer Roderick Lewis was dispatched to research.

OFFICER LEWIS (in court docket): After I arrived on the location … a male topic was exiting the room.  

OFFICER LEWIS (bodycam video): And so that you’re within the room simply ready on her whereas she’s at a celebration?

MARK HOWERTON: Precisely.

OFFICER LEWIS: OK.

OFFICER LEWIS: … You thoughts if I have a look within the room?

MARK HOWERTON: Man, no …

OFFICER LEWIS: I would really like you to step out right here with my associate proper now.

When Lewis did go into Cayley’s room, he discovered the glass door to the balcony was cracked, and Cayley’s garments had been scattered within the bushes. Pals say Howerton later smashed Cayley’s laptop computer on the road. The college barred him from campus.

Cayley instructed her ex-boyfriend, Jett Birchum, that she needed to get again with him.

Christy Jack: She was actually torn between two totally different individuals and each of whom had been vying for her affection.

Birchum instructed the jurors all of it got here to a head on the music competition.

JETT BIRCHUM (in court docket): She mentioned she needed to interrupt up with him at Mala Luna ’trigger there’d be loads of witnesses and other people round.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW: Did she appear nervous about breaking apart with him?

JETT BIRCHUM: Sure.

Howerton picked Cayley as much as go to the music competition. However first they pulled into a close-by carwash to take MDMA, or molly. Howerton mentioned they’d extra as soon as they obtained to the competition.

John Hunter: We’re speaking about huge doses, nicely above what could be obligatory for it to have an effect on — be efficient — to realize the expertise.

When Cayley did not present up on campus that night time, her pals began calling her. Howerton answered Cayley’s telephone.

MORGAN SAMPSON (in court docket): I used to be like, ”Have you ever seen Cayley?” Or, ”Have you ever heard from her? Like are you along with her?” And he mentioned, ”She will be able to’t discuss proper now,” after which hung up the telephone.

Panicked, they started trying to find Cayley. Jett Birchum, who additionally attended the competition, says he noticed Mark and Cayley transfer in direction of the exit… seemingly in opposition to Cayley’s needs.

JETT BIRCHUM (in court docket): Cayley seemed like she was tryin’ to create area and kinda simply get away.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW: After which what do you see him do?

JETT BIRCHUM: As she’s tryin’ to step away, I see him attain out his proper arm and hook it round her shoulder and pull her in nearer. After which flip and stroll away.

Peter Van Sant: That is essential testimony.

Christy Jack: It is essential testimony as a result of it is exhibiting that she’s being … being taken someplace in opposition to her will.

Protection legal professional John Hunter hammers him on cross-examination.

Christy Jack: It instantly falls aside virtually from the very first query.

In his questioning, Hunter confronts Birchum revealing how he initially misled investigators about what he had seen.

JOHN HUNTER (in court docket):  You suggested the police that you just noticed Mark bodily choose her up and place her in his automotive, is not that appropriate?

JETT BIRCHUM:  Sure, sir.

JOHN HUNTER: And it differs from the testimony that you just gave as we speak, proper?

JETT BIRCHUM: Sure, sir. … I didn’t see him put her within the automotive.

Birchum admits he exaggerated to police. However why? Prosecutors say he was nervous about Cayley’s security and needed to persuade cops to seek for her. Hunter then challenges Birchum relating to inconsistencies in his testimony to a grand jury concerning the timeline on the music competition.

JOHN HUNTER (in court docket): Would it not shock you to study that the telephone name you positioned to Cayley Mandadi’s telephone was made at 7 o’clock?

JETT BIRCHUM: No, sir.

In an effort to undermine Birchum’s credibility, he’s requested about an unrelated drug cost.

JOHN HUNTER (in court docket): You had been on probation on the time, had been you not, Mr. Birchum?

JETT BIRCHUM: Appropriate.

In 47 minutes of brutal questioning, Birchum ”takes the fifth” 30 instances, along with his lawyer by his facet.

JETT BIRCHUM:  … offered by the Fifth Modification.

The harm was executed.

Peter Van Sant: Inform me the impression of him saying time and again that he is taking the fifth?

John Hunter: The impression I feel cannot be understated. It is — it is an enormous factor to see anyone do this.

Hunter has a star witness of his personal — Dr. William Anderson, a forensic pathologist and former health worker who reviewed Cayley’s post-mortem and data for the protection.

DR. WILLIAM ANDERSON (in court docket):  So that you take a look at the post-mortem you are going to see—you are going to see what seemed like bruises.

Anderson presents the crux of Hunter’s case: that Cayley’s bruising was induced partly by resuscitation efforts on the hospital, and the organ donation course of.

Anderson goes a step additional, pointing to a skinny line in a photograph of Cayley’s cranium.

DR. WILLIAM ANDERSON (in court docket, pointing to post-mortem picture): Beginning right here we have now this jagged line. So, like I mentioned, it is like a crack in an eggshell, and that may be a cranium fracture.

A cranium fracture, which Hunter says may point out that Cayley’s mind bleed was attributable to a fall.

Peter Van Sant: She was in a automotive.

John Hunter: Properly, she was in a automotive for parts of … that day. … Hematomas do not kill individuals instantaneously.

CHRISTY JACK: I do not assume that you may overstate the significance of his testimony from a protection perspective. … It creates the impression that each one of those accidents occurred by each different means, however Mark Howerton.

As soon as the protection rests, prosecutors deliver the health worker again to problem Dr. Anderson’s testimony.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW: Is {that a} cranium fracture?

DR. SUZANNA DANA:  No, it is not.

Christy Jack: The faint line that Dr. Anderson was referring to got here from an image. … I did not imagine it. I believed it was reckless for him to have that opinion so definitively with solely an image.

The jurors should now make a momentous choice. Did Mark Howerton kill Cayley?

PARENTS LAUNCH THEIR OWN INVESTIGATION: ”CAYLEY GUIDED US”

After simply 10 hours of deliberating, the jury within the Mark Howerton homicide trial sends a word to the choose. There shall be no verdict.

JUDGE RAYMOND ANGELINI (studying word): ”After cautious deliberation and dialogue, sadly we can not come to a unanimous choice.” Girls and gents of the jury, I’m declaring a mistrial.

Peter Van Sant: Mistrial. Are you content? Is that in a means, a victory for you?

John Hunter: Any time that your shopper would not go to jail, it is a victory.

Alison Steele (sighs): It was a little bit bit disheartening. However on the similar time, I used to be mentally ready for that final result.

Prosecutors David Lunan and Alessandra Cranshaw had been disheartened, too.

Peter Van Sant: Did you’re feeling as if you’d let the household down?

David Lunan: Properly, certain.

Alessandra Cranshaw: Yeah.

David Lunan: Completely.

However it would not finish there. The prosecutors plan to retry the case and get busy making ready for spherical two, beginning with the protection star witness, health worker Dr. William Anderson.

Alessandra Cranshaw: I used to be not ready for Dr. Anderson to testify, uh — to what he testified to.

They’d been surprised by his claims that Cayley had a cranium fracture, and her bruising was induced partly by the organ donation course of.

Peter Van Sant: So, do you discover that this notion that organ harvesting induced these bruises to be absurd?

David Lunan: Absurd. Absurd. On this occasion, it is absurd.

Whereas the prosecutors work to handle these claims, protection legal professional John Hunter information a movement to get the entire case dismissed, based mostly partly on what he says had been Jett Birchum’s lies.

John Hunter: The figuring out use of false proof by the prosecution undermines our whole religion and confidence within the judicial system. … If that may occur, then there is not any level in even having a trial.

Cayley’s mother Alison Steele and stepdad Lawrence Baitland sat by way of the primary trial and concluded jurors wanted extra details about what occurred inside Mark Howerton’s automotive.

Peter Van Sant: You grew to become investigators?

Alison Steele: We did.

Lawrence Baitland: I knew we would have liked to indicate what occurred in that automotive. … The jury wanted to know the way it occurred.

She’s a scientist, he is a NASA engineer. They set to work.

Lawrence Baitland: I spent hours and hours, um, learning post-mortem pictures, and I actually fixated on one of many post-mortem pictures that confirmed an impression on Cayley’s head, you recognize, proper in entrance of her ear. 

The picture of a small dot above Cayley’s proper ear. Different pictures present deep bruising above Cayley’s left ear, just like the one described by the health worker within the first trial.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW: And what’s this that we see behind the ear?

DR. SUZANNA DANA:  That is a bruise. That is a contusion.

Cayley’s mother and father imagine that when taken collectively, the pictures inform a narrative.

Alison Steele: We imagine that of the entire accidents, the blows landed on her … the deadly one occurred when he reached from his driver’s seat, hit her within the left ear and drove her head into the window and onto the lock button of the automotive.

The truth is, in a recorded audio interview with police the day Cayley died, Howerton admitted he had beforehand executed simply that.

RANGER RAYMOND BENOIST (police interview): Did you ever push Cayley’s head up in opposition to the window?

MARK HOWERTON: I pushed her, and she or he hit the window one time. That was over per week in the past, sure.

Christy Jack: So, in lots of respects, it was like, similar track, second verse.

They’d want proof to persuade a jury. Cayley’s mother and father headed to a used automotive lot, the place Steele posed in a automotive much like the Mercedes Howerton drove that night time.

Lawrence Baitland: I might photographed her head in several positions whereas I am holding the post-mortem photographs, making an attempt to see in the event that they match up with the door and it is a close to good match.

Baitland determined to go a step additional.

Lawrence Baitland: So, then I loaded this 3D modeling program.

Constructing a 3D mannequin of Cayley’s head.  

Lawrence Baitland: … very first thing you are able to do is you may create a strong out of that 3D mesh. After which … you may mission a picture onto it.

And bringing them nearer to having precise proof.

Lawrence Baitland: So this gave me the boldness to go to the following step, which was to hunt out the killer’s automotive.

Mark Howerton bought the automotive in 2018. Baitland tracked down the brand new proprietor and acquired the automotive.

Peter Van Sant: What’d you consider that?

David Lunan: Uh, nicely, that is new. That is, uh, not one thing I have been, uh, accustomed to listening to, uh, in different instances.

Peter Van Sant: Present me what you imagine went down.

Lawrence Baitland: Positive.

Peter Van Sant: Let’s go over to the passenger facet…

The automotive Cayley was fatally injured in is sitting in her mum or dad’s driveway. Baitland says driving it residence was a haunting expertise.

Lawrence Baitland: It is torturous. Um, but it surely’s additionally, you recognize, she was exhibiting us what occurred, you recognize. She was guiding us to this automotive.

Peter Van Sant (standing outdoors of the automotive): You imagine that he struck her. When he did, she came to visit to this knob, her hit — her head, hit it. Now you discover while you push it down, it would not go flush.

Lawrence Baitland:  Proper. … This is not going to retract absolutely, regardless of how laborious you hit it.

Cayley’s mother and father determined to make a video to reveal their principle in court docket.

Christy Jack: They went and located two actors, a male and a feminine to decorate the elements. They had been, um, comparable dimension, comparable weight.

Lawrence Baitland: If we did the reconstruction ourselves, it will be thought-about biased and possibly thrown out or at the least discredited.

So that they employed a non-public investigator to provide the demonstration. They did not even take a look at it in case they had been referred to as to testify about it.

The video is easy: exhibiting three angles of what Cayley’s mother and father and their consultants imagine occurred.

Peter Van Sant: Would exhibiting a jury a video like this probably assist the prosecution’s case. If it — if it is allowed?

Christy Jack:  Jurors are very visible. … It makes it simpler for them.

Christy Jack: It exhibits the way it can occur. And it solutions a lot of the questions that the jury had within the first trial.

Hunter says nevertheless Cayley obtained that dot above her ear, it is all hypothesis.

John Hunter: It might be from one thing on the hospital, it may have been from one thing earlier than she obtained in Mark’s automotive. … May or not it’s that that’s from a locking factor on the door? I imply, certain. It may be {that a} area alien got here and put a little bit, you recognize, mark on her.

John Hunter: I virtually really feel prefer it’s not value discussing as a result of it is so unscientific.

Years go by. Alison labored to cross the Texas Clear Alert Invoice. It allows regulation enforcement to shortly provoke searches when individuals aged 18 to 64 go lacking. In 2021, a district court docket in Texas denied John Hunter’s movement to dismiss the case, ruling there was no proof of prosecutorial misconduct regarding Jett Birchum’s testimony. Hunter appealed that ruling.

Alison Steele:  It was horrible, simply ready and never figuring out what was gonna occur.

Hunter filed appeals all the best way to the US Supreme Courtroom, which declined to listen to the case.

John Hunter: We misplaced in each court docket we may take it to.

And so, greater than 5 years after Cayley’s dying, a date for a second trial is about. Could 23, 2023.

Peter Van Sant: What’s at stake right here? … Are emotions, are feelings operating excessive?

Christy Jack: I do not assume the stakes might be any greater.

JUSTICE FOR CAYLEY

In Could 2023, Mark Howerton is about to go on trial for the second time for the homicide of Cayley Mandadi.

Taylor Clement: I felt assured that this was her time.

Within the 5 plus years since Cayley’s dying, Howerton was energetic on social media, posting issues like, ”Come @ me legally, I will beat you …” — exhibiting little regret.

MARK HOWERTON (social video): Wow. 75% of individuals assume I am responsible. That simply means 75% of individuals on the planet…can suck my d***.

Christy Jack: He was residing giant and bragging about having crushed the state of Texas in a court docket of regulation.

Howerton’s attorneys John Hunter and Hallie Pease say appearing out on social media was his means of dealing with the stress of being falsely accused of homicide.

Hallie Pease: He was utilizing social media as an outlet for — to alleviate a few of that pressure.

Throughout the first trial, jurors had just one cost to think about – felony homicide. This time round, attorneys add extra expenses, together with aggravated assault and criminally negligent murder. Then got here time to think about the video Cayley’s mother and father had made.

Peter Van Sant: Did you need the jurors to see that video?

David Lunan: I did, initially.

Presenting the video got here with dangers, together with the chance that Hunter’s cross-examination about it would undermine the entire case.

Christy Jack: The choose mentioned I am gonna let it in. But when so … then the mother and father at the moment are witnesses and they’re going to now not be allowed to take a seat within the trial. … And the prosecution went and talked to the mother and father, they usually determined to withdraw the exhibit.

On Could 23, trial two begins — this one with out tv cameras. Alessandra Cranshaw’s opening argument is almost the identical.

Alessandra Cranshaw: I mainly instructed the jury that … one of the best ways to clarify this case … is to start out the place Cayley Mandadi’s life ended and that is within the automotive with this defendant.

However there’s a massive change to the witness listing: no Jett Birchum.

Christy Jack: There was nothing to be gained.

And prosecutors add a witness – an professional on home violence who instructed jurors Howerton was a textbook abuser, who remoted and manipulated Cayley, and finally grew to become enraged and misplaced management.

A sample notably troublesome to deal with at simply 19 years of age.

Christy Jack: I feel she had no concept, the damaging predicament she was in.

John Hunter desires jurors to provide Howerton the good thing about the doubt.

John Hunter: The … presentation of how Cayley appears to be like within the hospital and the way she seemed on the post-mortem doesn’t imply that she was crushed.

His case, this time round, depends closely on the testimony of a pharmacologist who mentioned the excessive ranges of MDMA, or ecstasy, in Cayley’s system may have induced her mind bleed.

John Hunter: I’ve all the time felt that that was the most important precipitating motive for her dying.

However prosecutors and Cayley’s household say Hunter grossly exaggerated the hazard of MDMA.

Alison Steele: There’s by no means been a single documented case wherever of MDMA inflicting a subdural hematoma.

Peter Van Sant: What do you say to that? 

John Hunter: Properly, initially, they have not executed a lot analysis on this in any respect.

Hunter plans one remaining witness — the previous health worker whose testimony about organ donation and a attainable cranium fracture induced a lot harm to the prosecution within the first trial — Dr. William Anderson.

This time, prosecutors are prepared for him, with a brand new witness, a revered health worker who instructed them Anderson’s claims within the first trial had been irresponsible.

Alessandra Cranshaw: They realized that we had been gonna be greater than ready to shoot down all these claims that he had made within the first trial.

John Hunter: I did not have to have a battle concerning the cranium fracture.

So the protection rests with out Anderson.

Lawrence Baitland: It was a shock. … You might hear a pant within the courtroom …

Now, a second set of 12 individuals will decide Mark Howerton’s destiny. It is an agonizing second anticipate Cayley’s mother and father.

Christy Jack: That is the second of fact; will their daughter get justice?

Agonizing for John Hunter, too. He’d spent practically six years working to maintain Howerton free.

Peter Van Sant: So the jury comes again in, what do you hear?

John Hunter: The 2 most stunning phrases within the English language, not responsible.

Peter Van Sant: Not responsible of homicide. 

Alison Steele: My coronary heart sank once we heard not responsible on the homicide.

Christy Jack:  … they’re considering, pricey God, that is the ultimate nightmare. He is gonna stroll outtalk the courtroom.

However there was extra. Howerton was convicted of aggravated assault inflicting critical bodily damage.

David Lunan: Everybody was hugging one another and expressing their aid that Mark Howerton was going to jail.

Alison Steele: I turned to my left and eight sheriff officers had assembled to take him to jail. Eight. So, that was their means of claiming, ”we’re right here for you.” (cries) So, that was a — that was a pleasant second to see that.

Howerton was sentenced to the utmost – 20 years in jail. To Cayley’s household, it is not practically sufficient.

Lawrence Baitland: Mark Howerton is a monster, and he does what a monster does.

For Cayley’s buddy Taylor Clement, the wound stays uncooked.

Taylor Clement: I miss my finest buddy.

Baitland and Steele say they don’t have any regrets about spending money and time on a video the jury by no means obtained to see.

Lawrence Baitland: It helped us study what occurred. … We might do it over once more if we needed to.

”48 Hours” confirmed Steele that video for very first time.

Alison Steele: It is laborious to see as a result of that is probably the blow that killed her.

Cayley’s mother, who prayed one thing good would come from her daughter’s dying, continues her battle to assist different victims of violence.

Alison Steele: What I would really like is for her sacrifice … to assist different individuals. That is what she would need. I’ve completely little question about that.

Mark Howerton shall be eligible for parole in 2033.

Produced by Mary Ann Rotondi  and Chris Younger Ritzen. Jenna Jackson and Ryan N. Smith are the event producers. Mike McHugh is the producer/editor. Michael Loftus is the affiliate producer. Gregory F. McLaughlin, George Baluzy and Michelle Harris are editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.