The Case Against Nicole Addimando | Full Episode

The foreigner feared for her life, I mean, I constantly feared for her life. She texted him every morning to see if she was still alive. My phone rang and it was a little after two in the morning and it was Nikki. You sounded so scared better than anyone. another person in this world knew how dangerous it was at that moment what was her name she had been asking him all night you know, let us go, let me go with the kids, I'm not going anywhere, I'm not leaving. She pulled a gun off the couch and said he would kill her.

I need it and when she did that, the gun fell to the ground. You picked her up and said you wouldn't. Nick, you didn't try to evade the police and you didn't hide the fact that she shot herself. Nikki is the kindest and most loving friend we have ever had. Everything she does is for her children. In retrospect, it's very easy to connect the dots. There were many

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s where I noticed a bruise. attributed to playing with children in some type of accident we had medical documents showing physical injuries there were many people who saw her with black eyes with bruises wounds on her face or neck she had bite marks on her back burn marks well yes that's true as a prosecutor it's my obligation to investigate him anyone who knew Chris was there to support him he was my gymnastics coach he always made us feel safe my son never hurt anyone he lived for Nikki he lived for those kids he was a gentle soul who was

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of life and she took it she was a very good actress to take a few deep breaths well, we know that it is not popular to say that a woman who claims that she has suffered domestic violence is lying, it is not popular to say that she was self-inflicted injuries Do you think that people who supported Nikki Adamando were manipulated by her?

I don't think Chris ever abused her. She planned and intentionally murdered him when she was sleeping abroad at 2 a.m. m. on September 28, 2017. Police Officer Richard Sicily came across a car stopped at a red light the light turned green and when the car didn't move Officer Cecily says he honked a horn to get the driver's attention , what happened next made him stunned, it's okay, just take a few deep breaths, an agitated young mother named Nicole Otomando told him in stockings. he something had gone terribly wrong on the couch at home she said she had been abused she had tried to leave and her boyfriend had a gun so I picked her up and he said he wouldn't do it police officer Cecilia I think he's shocked that this is unfolding before him, Putnam County Assistant District Attorney Hannah Krause would soon be investigating Nikki's story.

She doesn't know if she needs an ambulance. There are two children in the car. Nikki had called a friend seen here in the police dash cam video. My friend Elizabeth Clifton pulls over and the officers ask her to wait in a nearby parking lot. I watched the police emergency vehicles drive by. Dude, the ambulance backed up in the wrong direction and didn't have its lights on, so I was scared. I was afraid of what had happened. happened, officers went to Nikki's apartment and found her partner Chris Grover, who appeared to be sleeping on the couch, dead from a single gunshot wound to the head.

They found the shower running and a broken laptop in the bathtub. They took Nikki to the police station where she was questioned by detectives and Elizabeth learned that Chris was dead. Never in a million years was I afraid of him dying. I was afraid she would die every day, not long after, Gail Grover received a heartbreaking visit from the sheriff and told us that Chris had passed away. and my first question was if Nikki and the kids are okay, that itself tells you that we had no idea, no idea, Gail says something was wrong in her son's life, she describes Chris as kind and athletic, he had a black belt in Taekwondo and was head of gymnastics. trainer at Mr Todd's Gym in Poughkeepsie Beth Weyland trained with him there he was always so happy and

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of energy I mean he was like a rocket running around the gym he was a huge kid at heart, a huge kid and that's where in 2008 he he met a fairly young trainer named Nicole Adamando he was 21 she was 19. they soon started dating in 2012 they moved in together and announced that Nikki was expecting their first child Ben was excited he was absolutely ecstatic he was a proud dad Chris a talented amateur The Cameraman made this video for Nikki, which he called becoming a mother two years later, his daughter Faye appeared, those children were everything to him and to Nikki too.

Gail says Nikki was a great mother. Elizabeth Clifton taught Mom and me a music class that Nikki attended with Ben once. She came to class with what I thought was a black eye. She covered herself completely and even in the summer she wore long sleeves, long pants and a scarf that covered her neck. Nikki's childhood friends Laura Mokadanu and Rachel Hawks also noticed injuries, but I didn't put pressure on her, I noticed a bruise, you know, she used to say, you know, oh, I was playing with Ben and his guitar hit me, you know, always It was something that to me at the time seemed very, was plausible, plausible.

She didn't think twice, then one day a mom at the gym where Chris trained found out about Nikki's injuries. She had seen Chris lose his temper in the past with young gymnasts in his class. Concerned, she made an anonymous report to Child Protective Services or CPS, as required by law, CPS visited Nikki and Chris' apartment within a short time. Chris was dead and Nikki was trying to explain why she chased me and then she looked up for a second and I think she thought she had led them to believe she had misbehaved. -defense instead of intentionally killing Chris Grover, it's like, obviously, I think it's a century, I think she thought she was going home, but Nikki didn't go home that night, instead she was charged with murder in second grade and Chris' death, what did you think when?

They accused Nikki of murder. He was heartbroken a few weeks after Chris Grover's death, friends, family and former students like Michaela Hughes, he always said, "come on, kid," he would gather to release balloons in his honor. It felt great to know that he wasn't the only one supporting him. by Nikki Adamando were also reeling. His arrest for Chris' murder sparked an outcry from friends, family and advocates for victims of domestic violence for choosing to fight back and survive. Nikki could spend the next 20 years up to life in prison. Elizabeth Clifton began organizing rallies and fundraisers and also reliving the years of Terror she says she went through with Nikki starting in April 2016 when she decided to confront Nikki about her injuries and told her I'm so scared for you and I'm worried.

I'm not safe at home Elizabeth says Nikki reluctantly admitted that her partner Chris was abusing her. It wasn't like a floodgate. I would say a slight trickle of recognition that yes, this was happening. Nikki's

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caught my attention because of the level of violence in which she was involved. Rachel. Louise Snyder is a journalist who spent 10 years studying domestic violence for a book called "No Bruises Visible" As part of her research into Nikki's case for a New Yorker article, she read the entire court file and interviewed dozens of people who, according to Nikki, alleged that Chris forced himself on them. on her sexually, but he did not become violent until her son Ben was born to her and he slammed her head against the door frame of Ben's room and then raped her.

It happened again, Nikki said, almost two years later, when she was pregnant with Faye, she sought medical attention. here at Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie and a couple of days later she was standing in the kitchen making eggs for Ben and Chris supposedly came in and said you better make me some and she said yes sir, quite sarcastically, and he He forced her to the ground. and he took a spoon and held it to the gas flame and burned her whole body with it again. Nikki sought medical attention. The exam report. The attacker from the United States named Chris heated a metal utensil on the gas stove and burned Nikki in multiple areas of her body.

Her body, as far as I understand, was tying her up, you know, I remember seeing her marks around her neck and her wrists and what she was doing was raping her. Nikki feared that Chris was videotaping the encounters. Elizabeth says she and Nikki's therapist pushed Nikki to press charges. in fact, several people tried to get her to file police reports and she was petrified. She said Chris would tell her that no one would believe her and that she didn't want her children to be taken away from her. She knew she was in danger. Elizabeth tried to help Nikki leave and in the summer of 2016, Nikki put the children in the car and drove to Elizabeth's house.

One of the hardest things I've ever experienced is she would come, drive, slow down and then and then go again, she watched Nikki drive by her house over and over for hours and she was on the phone saying she couldn't just walk in, just walk in the front door and Nikki just couldn't do it and that's what a chore is. The departure of the victim of violence seems like a series of false starts in this mindset. Her terror of him is stronger than her belief that the system will save her in 2017, just months before Chris died.

Nikki sought medical help three times from a midwife who noticed multiple injuries in May Burns like ropes States Chris has a gun and uses it on my body in June Swollen back looks inside out in August bruised and bleeding Chris raped her at gunpoint and then in September came that anonymous caller to CPS Child Protective Services called Nikki and Chris and said we're going to come interview you tomorrow, all of a sudden there were outside eyes on them. Nikki said Chris left the day with an abuse bat, presumably to get rid of it, the next day CPS made their home visit after Chris left. to work and came home that night in a calm mood, at one point Nikki said he called her into the room where he was loading his gun and wants her to try to load it and he gives her a bullet and apparently she is shaking according to Nikki. then she took a shower and at some point Chris threw the laptop into the bathtub, she said he forced her to have sex with him on the couch, but he was unusually gentle and if you are a victim of domestic violence and someone who tends to be very violent With you, he's suddenly kind.

You're going to receive that message. You're going to immediately understand that that's goodbye. Mickey said that he lay on top of Chris for a while and thought he was asleep. When she tried to get up, he took out the gun from behind the couch cushions. Nikki said she pulled out the gun and pointed it at him, she said he laughed at her and then said this is what's going to happen, you're going to give me the gun and I'm going to kill you and then I'm going to kill myself and the kids aren't going. to have anyone and she said he just rushed over and shot her in the head.

Nikki's support that night was simple: kill or be killed in March 2019. Nikki Adamando was released on bail in The time he was tried for the murder of her partner Chris Grover. Friends and advocates dressed in purple, the color of domestic violence victims, lined up in support and stood alongside Loyal Chris supporters, heartbroken to learn that Nikki's defense would hinge on allegations that he abused her. What do you want people to know? Chris didn't do this. My son never hurt anyone and that is the bottom line. You are not allowed to enter the courtroom here at the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie.

Prosecutors argued that Nikki described herself as a victim, but that her accusations of abuse were false, she was not the victim in this case, Chris was the victim in this case and that became very evident. . Prosecutor Hannah Krause has spent much of her career defending victims of sexual violence. Krause told the jury that the physical evidence was overwhelming, starting with the fact that Chris was killed with a direct contact wound to the head, the medical examiner testified that the muzzle of the gun that was imprinted on Chris's head meant that It was embedded in her head when she pulled the trigger.

Krauss said Nikki, not Chris, threw the laptop. the bathtub in an attempt to make it look like Chris had evidence to hide. I didn't expect the laptop to be recovered in a way that we could still examine it and determined that there was absolutely no evidence of abuse on that laptop and Krauss presented a series of text messages that Nikki sent to Chris just days before she died, calling him a man child and asking him: WTF is wrong with you, are you that stupid? She was the one who abused him in these messages when they communicated all day and then there was the Internet.

Searches on Chris's phone the night he died Krause thinks Nikki did them If you shoot someone in their sleep, will the police know? 15 minutes of searches that are a road map of exactly how he was murdered. Even more damning was a text message Nikki sent to a friend six. Weeks before she hadn't found a way to kill him without getting caught, so I'm still here. Nikkipunctuated the text with a grimacing emoji that his lawyers say clearly shows he was joking, but several weeks later he was dead, so that's pretty much a coincidence Krauss acknowledges that Nikki had a traumatic experience when she was just five years old Nikki was raped during a sleepover at a friend's house the rape was witnessed by another child Nikki didn't tell anyone at the time, but her friends say it had a lasting impact So if we wanted to have sleepovers, Nikki we always went to sleep at home.

She never slept in one of our houses. Nikki said his assault made her uncomfortable with sex as an adult, which she confided in Chris when they started dating for about a year. They weren't intimate for a year because he cared a lot about her and that was who he was. He never changed. Chris didn't change, Krauss says, but Niggy became someone who made up stories of abuse. She never reported these accusations to the police, but The story Krause told jurors that these accusations began before Nikki met Chris when she accused an ex-boyfriend of assaulting her, what are they going to think if she alleges that all the relationships she had were non-consensual.

Would you believe what she said about Chris a few years after she started dating Chris? Almost a decade ago. Nikki told a therapist that a maintenance worker at her mother's apartment complex raped her. Nikki said later. Memories from that time were unclear and she wasn't sure what abuse it was from the maintenance worker or Chris. How do you not remember which abuse was from the maintenance worker and which was from your partner around the same time Nikki met a married police officer? who invited her to babysit with his family he was the father of a child who was trained by the defendant at one time Chris Grover and Krause says they began a relationship that lasted several years, even after Nikki lived with Chris and was pregnant with Ben Nikki said the married police officer also forced himself on her sexually there were so many other men, so which one was he talking about?

Nikki's supporters insist these are not false accusations, they are true. An author Rachel Louise Snyder says that children were victims of abuse and often grow up to be victims again. The fact that Nikki was assaulted when she was five years old means that she, as an adult, is placed in a much higher risk category. In fact, she would be two-thirds more likely to be victimized as an adult. But prosecutor Krauss told jurors that in Nikki's case there is evidence that her accusations were false and that her injuries often had an innocent explanation: the bruise on her eye was due to Ben hitting her in the eye with a guitar, it's not rocket science, he witnessed seeing Ben.

He hit her with that, the medical records were also unclear according to Krause, including that first visit Nikki made to this hospital when she was pregnant with Faye and they asked her a series of questions to which she responded no, it's abuse inflicted with tools, No. Do you have burns or does it burn you? No. Krause says it wasn't until Nikki returned a few days later that a nurse noticed those burns, so what do you think that means? I think she decided to come back a second time and be able to. To answer yes to each of those questions, what she said was happening was completely inconsistent with the evidence we were finding as our investigation progressed, so Nikki faced great risk that day when CPS called, Krauss says, her abuse fabrications being exposed to Krause, that was Nikki's motive for the murder.

She was worried that child protective services would know that this manipulated story she published was not true and that she could lose her children when she saw it in this light. Krauss argued Nikki's story about what happened on The night Chris died is quickly revealed the beautiful, young mother who sparked sympathy was never what she seemed. I think people need to understand what really happened here and what really happened here. Chris Grover was asleep when she killed him, that's what happened here. See more photos of the case on Facebook Within 48 hours it was time for attorneys John and Gracia and Ben Oster to present the defense case and Nikki Adamando's murder trial say she lived in constant danger and believed she would die.

The night Chris Grover died you have a woman with no previous history of violence with no criminal record. We know that very often women who have sought help end up in a body bag, which is what she faced that night. The lawyers would have to convince the jury. that Nikki acted in self-defense and shot Chris to save her own life, so they called witnesses to corroborate Nikki's claim that Chris brutally abused her for years. There were psychologists, nurse-midwives who feared the abuse Nikki was suffering. A police officer testified at our trial. ready to send police officers to make an arrest, they presented photographs documenting Nikki's injuries and argued that Nikki's injuries could not have been self-inflicted.

Burns on her face to the point of leaving a blister. Burns on her chest. She had bite marks on her shoulder blades. You can't reach your own shoulder blades. What about the bite marks on her neck in the places on her back that she couldn't reach? How do you know if any of those injuries really came from Chris and not from the other people she was? claiming she was involved in a relationship, but Nikki's lawyers say the other men mentioned by the prosecution were an attempt to create confusion and that Nikki had not had sexual relations with anyone other than Chris for years before her death, so that the kind of fog they created was embarrassing Nikki in some way and is not relevant to the case of whether Mr.

Grover was victimizing her with intimate partner violence. They insisted that the aggressive text messages Nikki sent to Chris were ways of defending herself and said she paid for them later when Chris hit her. It is not uncommon for people to use words to defend themselves. The attorneys reminded jurors that searches on the Internet about how to kill someone who is sleeping were made on Chris's phone with no evidence that Nikki did them and the medical examiner testified that there was no evidence that Chris was sleeping. Dr. Newman said it could have happened exactly the same way. the way Nikki said it happened.

Nikki was called to the stand so the jurors could hear from her directly. What did you say to him? Day one, day two, to tell the truth, just to say. the truth the truth never changes and Nikki's story did not change visibly shaken and sometimes crying Nikki told the court that Chris lashed out when he felt disrespected hit her, raped her, strangled her and left her tied up for hours so Laura could Mokadanu saw her friend testify. It was heartbreaking, it was three full days of her being up there being interrogated and having to relive the trauma that she experienced.

Nikki told jurors that after Faye was born, Chris began watching pornography constantly and would try to recreate pornography with Nikki. Nikki's lawyers presented the most overly graphic photos to show what Nikki claimed Chris posted without her consent on PornHub, a pornographic video sharing website, the videos had keywords like found in pound or break a or it was just really language. ugly and disrespectful, the jury saw the photographs but did not see the ugly. words or information in the post about the user who uploaded the images was someone named Grover Respect who, like Chris Grover, described himself as a 29-year-old cinematographer who loved martial arts.

The judge ruled that there was no way to prove that Chris created it. Grover Respect was the one. posted the PornHub videos that were clearly our client's. There was other evidence that jurors didn't see, including the full 2014 medical report and these midwife exams documenting injuries from the summer before Chris died. Somehow, his case was cut short from the beginning. It is not uncommon for some evidence to be excluded in a murder trial and prosecutor Hannah Krause believes this was excluded for a good reason. She argued that Nikki could have made the pornography herself, there is no way to identify a man in the photos and it was not rape.

Does someone appear to be engaging in a consensual act? I think he was consensual with Nikki. Nikki's testimony may not have changed many minds. She would say one thing and then, in the next breath, she would say something else right on the stand. See it wasn't true, music teacher Elizabeth Clifton testified for Nikki's defense, but she wasn't asked about everything she had seen, including a day in 2016 when Nikki said she was having a miscarriage, the amount of blood was like pools of blood. on the floor and with stained clothes Elizabeth believes that Chris's abuse caused the miscarriage and says that Nikki was afraid to go see a doctor because Chris would be angry.

I saw her suffer horrible pain where she could barely speak because she was in so much pain. miscarriage due to pain because she was afraid to go to the hospital Laura did not testify at trial, but this photo of Nikki in a bridesmaid dress at Laura's wedding was defense evidence to document a burn on Nikki's chest . Laura says it's an example of how the prosecution and not Nikki manipulated the story and she has what I think was a burn mark from a curling iron because clearly her hair was freshly curled. Nikki's hair was just curly, says Laura, because the couple had just gone to the hair salon together.

She says the mark was large and oval in shape and was old and already healing when they got to the salon, it was a burn mark from a spoon. of hot metal there was no doubt after 14 days of testimony the case finally went to the jurors who would have to decide was Nikki Adamando a terrified victim or a manipulative liar after three days of deliberations finally a jury of eight women and four men rejected the Nikki Adomondo's self-defense claim and convicted her of criminal possession of a weapon and second degree murder appears to be punched in the stomach very hard this for her was the worst possible verdict it was traumatic she is so small and she is sitting there and the people think she's a criminal and I just wanted to hug her Chris Grover's family and friends finally found some comfort thank God someone was listening and for once a little relief that they had drugged Christopher's name so badly in the mud and they had turned him into this monster that he was not.

Did you feel vindicated? No, this is never about me. I was happy for Chris's family. They got to the point where they heard the jury plead guilty, but the case was not yet over. Under an updated New York state law, the Justice for Survivors of Domestic Violence Act, Nikki was entitled to another day in court, a hearing in which his claims of domestic violence could be taken into account in reducing his sentence I wrote a letter to the judge explicitly saying that these are the situations in which it was specifically clear to me that it was Christopher Grover who was hurting his judge Edward McLaughlin, who He also presided over Nikki's murder trial heard by other Witnesses. and from prosecutors who argued that Nikki was not a real victim she had access to services and could have left Chris at any time, including the day of his death, she had a car and had the means to leave if she was worried about any of this .

They were honest, she had all day to leave, but author Rachel Louise Snyder believes Nikki and says that expecting a victim of domestic violence to leave is absolutely a mistake, she is more likely to die letting the investigation point to that. over and over again, Snyder says. Nikki made use of the services, but especially with two very young children at home, she didn't know how to get out alive. In fact, the night Chris died, Nikki told police officers that she asked Chris to let her go at least 17 times and she said let me go and I won't tell anyone else and Nikki repeated that he said that you won't leave.

I tried to leave. I represented a young woman who left 11 months later, she was killed. Leaving doesn't protect you and leaving isn't the answer. What about the research that shows women who try to leave are more likely to be harmed? I don't dispute it at all. I just don't think she was a victim here. I think she created everything. From this, in a 47-page ruling released in February 2020, the judge essentially sided with the prosecution, saying that Nikki was just steps from her front door the night Chris died and that she could have left. He also said that her inconsistent statements about past abuse made it impossible to know the identity of her abuser.

He denied Nikki's request for a lighter sentence. The reasons basically boiled down to she could have simply left and who knows who was abusing her. Nikki's supporters insist thatthey know exactly who was abusing her Chris Chris Grover like her name was on Those documents and those documents were presented to the judge and her name is there over and over again but to this day Chris's friends and former students defend the man they knew everyone loved Chris. He would do everything he could for everyone who never saw him. get angry, you never saw him get angry in the gym, he always made us feel safe and I don't think he was ever able to do any kind of harm, someone can be a wonderful person in many situations and still be a bully. the same way someone can be a wonderful person and still be a victim on February 11th Nikki's supporters gathered once again outside the Poughkeepsie Courthouse this time for her sentencing hearing the system didn't take kindly to the system He did it right we have to do I'm sure that other real victims out there, real victims of domestic violence, understand that we are there to help him get out safely to prosecutor Hannah Krause.

They are sending a dangerous message. I think she manipulated them. I think she was manipulating everyone around her. It is very possible that she is manipulative. I have no idea, but was she the victim of sustained and extremely severe abuse? Yes, I have no doubt that Nikki was sentenced to 19 years in prison to life in prison. The Grover family now focuses on kids Ben and Faye lives with Nikki's relatives and spends weekends with the Grovers, that's what the world means right now. Those kids. Nikki drew these photos of herself with her children while she was in jail.

For many, the outcome of her trial was exactly what she feared all along, that no one would do it. Believe her if you don't believe a woman was victimized based on the evidence we had here, so what happens when she has no visible bruises? I would like to imagine that one day the day will come when she will be free, but true. now, but right now that feels very distant. Nikki's supporters continue to raise money to help defray her legal expenses. I will rescue you. I will do that. An appeals court determined that Nicole Aramando should have qualified for a reduced sentence under the Justice for Survivors of Domestic Violence Act and reduced it. sentence to 7.5 years if you or a loved one or a victim of domestic violence call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 this is by far the worst thing I have ever seen as a victim was Jacqueline Van de Graaff a chance encounter with someone cruel The murder was because she looked like the Killer's ex, how he was stalking me was completely related to Jackie Vandergriff's death 48 hours Saturday at 10 9 Central on CBS