Show full transcript 0:53 Shop toyota.com for deals and details or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. 0:57 Toyota, let's go places. 1:04 Did you have a pretty close relationship with Mamta as your daughter? 1:19 We were very close. I loved her and she loved me. 1:26 How often would you talk to Mamta? 1:35 In daily basis, like morning and evening. 1:43 That was Gita Khaflay, the mother of Mamta Khaflay Bhat, testifying at her daughter's 1:50 murder trial in Manassas Park, Virginia. 1:53 As you can hear, she's using a translator. 1:56 Mamta's husband, Naresh Bhat, was charged with murdering Mamta after she appeared 2:01 to have gone missing. 2:02 On August 2, 2024, her co-workers at the UVA Prince William Medical Center requested 2:08 a welfare check on the bought home when Mamta missed a few of her shifts at work. 2:14 Nuresh spoke to the officers who conducted the welfare check and then filed a missing 2:19 persons report on August 5. 2:21 Nuresh was arrested and held without bond on August 22, 2024. 2:26 for. He now stands trial for concealing the body of his wife, murder, and defiling a body. 2:33 The trial is expected to take up to seven weeks. The charges are significant because 2:39 Manta's body has still not been found. I'm 48 hours correspondent Ann Marie Green and 2:45 this is Case by Case. For our previous coverage of the BOT trial, you can head on over to 2:51 the 48 hours YouTube channel or check out the case by case feed wherever you get your podcast. 2:58 Joining us today is WUSA 9 reporter Katie Lusso who has been covering this case. 3:04 Katie, it is so great to have you here today. 3:06 Hi there. 3:07 Thank you so much for having me. 3:09 You have really been on this trial since before it was a trial. 3:14 You all have done extensive coverage and in fact you were at the bot home speaking 3:20 to Naresh asking him about the disappearance of his wife a full eight days before he was arrested. 3:27 Give me an idea of just what led you to the home. Were you aware that he may have been a suspect and 3:33 what was his demeanor like? No, we were not aware that he was even being considered a person of 3:37 interest at that point. He had appeared at a press conference that afternoon. I was working 3:42 nightside that day and I was like, hey, have we done a doorknock? A few days earlier, 3:48 my colleague Raphael Sanchez Cruz had actually stopped him and interviewed him outside of them 3:52 at SS Park Police Department. And when I say interview, I say that loosely because Nourish 3:56 really didn't want to talk to us yet. He seemed to be confused about whether or not he was allowed 4:01 to speak with us. And so there was a little bit of an exchange between him and my colleague Raphael, 4:06 where Raphael was saying, hey, we just want to want to know what your message is. The 4:10 community is really trying to find her. What do you want to say to the community about 4:14 Now, when you last saw her, is there anything, you know, the standard conversation that his 4:19 journalists have with families when there are missing people? 4:23 And so that night, I went to his home. 4:26 I had had a phone conversation with him before I headed out there, as it is a little bit 4:30 out of the way of the D.C. area where our station is located. 4:33 And I headed out there after speaking with him on the phone. 4:36 And I headed to his home. 4:37 I knocked on the door. 4:38 Somebody else answered. 4:39 I said, hey, it's Noresh home. 4:40 I'd love to speak with him. 4:42 He came to the door. 4:43 The baby was crying in the background and our conversation began Wow, I mean were you expecting him to speak to you? 4:51 You know it it's hard to say because I had spoken to him on the phone and 4:57 He said yes, I'll talk to you, but today's not a good day 5:01 I believe he said to me I have to take care of the baby 5:04 And I said well how about I just call you in a few hours and of course I knocked on the door instead 5:09 You know as journalists we want to just go there and try to talk to the person versus trying to convince them again on the phone 5:16 Yeah, I've done many a doorknock where you're not sure whether or not the person's gonna open the door 5:20 And when they do you don't know how long they're gonna stand there. What was his demeanor like with you? 5:27 he was 5:29 Juggling it seemed like he was juggling a few things he mentioned that to me on the phone that he had a lot going on 5:33 Understandably, you know, his wife is missing. He has an 11-month-old baby. She was crying in the background 5:39 I will say there were other people at the home possibly family or friends 5:42 I know a lot of people in the community had been going they really came together to try and help the family in any way 5:48 They could and so I believe they were stopping by with groceries 5:51 He mentioned to me and just trying to help in any way they could but he started answering my questions 5:56 There was a little bit of a pause in the beginning because the baby started crying and I could see her and I said hey 6:00 Like do you want to go get her real quick check on her? 6:03 He said yes, and he came back and our conversation continued. He did answer my questions 6:09 So then fast forward and you're actually in the courtroom on October 7th for opening statements 6:15 Can you give me a sense of what the energy was like in the courtroom and and who was there for Mamta? 6:20 Who was there on her side? 6:22 so Mamta's mother Gita Kafei and 6:24 Mamta's brother Mahesh Kafei were both there in the courtroom as were 6:28 Several of the supporters there have been a ton of supporters that have been backing this family since the very beginning 6:33 And and you mentioned when I spoke to him at the front door 6:36 The family was really getting a lot of support, 6:39 but at the same time the community 6:41 was really demanding answers 6:42 and they wanted to get answers from him 6:44 because they weren't really hearing from him. 6:47 So back in the courtroom though, 6:49 Mahesh and Gita have been there every single day. 6:52 They've been in the U.S. for the past two years. 6:54 They've been caring for Mamta and Nuresh's daughter. 6:57 She's now three years old. 6:59 They've been taking care of her 7:01 and Mamta's father, meanwhile, he's back in Nepal. 7:03 So it's been tough on that family 7:05 but they want justice, and they want answers, and they believe Nourish has the answers. 7:10 And what about Nourish? You describe a house with people there supporting him when it was 7:16 just a missing persons investigation. In the courtroom, now that it's a murder trial, does 7:21 he have friends? Does he have family there? 7:23 I will say the witness list is very long, and anyone who is on the witness list 7:28 is not allowed to be in the courtroom. They have made exceptions for Momta's mother 7:31 and brother to be there. But even when it came to some of the supporters who have been subpoenaed 7:36 to be witnesses in the case, they're not allowed to attend. And I've spoken to some of those supporters 7:41 who are like, we want to be there, but we physically can't. We can't watch the hearing. 7:45 We don't know what's going on right now. In terms of him, I have never spoken to his family. 7:50 I do know there are several family members for him on the witness list. 7:54 Nobody has outwardly said I'm here to support Nuresh, though. 7:58 Well, you talked to him once. Now that you look at him in the courtroom, what's his demeanor 8:03 like? 8:04 You know, he's very quiet. He has not been saying a lot out loud. I'll say, though, during 8:11 the pretrial hearings, we were hearing from him. He addressed the judge twice on two 8:16 different occasions and specifically expressing his frustration that he had with his defense 8:22 attorneys and at one point with the judge herself. But since then, he has been quiet. 8:28 We've seen him pulling out tissues, appearing to dab at what might be tears, seen him drinking 8:33 a lot of water, seen him talking to his attorneys. And I'll say that every time his attorneys 8:39 go up to the bench to discuss any sort of sidebar, he's right there with them. 8:43 He wants to know everything that is happening. 8:46 You mentioned him sort of complaining about his defense team. He actually at one point 8:51 tried to dismiss his defense. I wasn't sure if this was just sort of a stall tactic, but 8:56 clearly he had already expressed his displeasure. 9:00 Yeah. And the prosecution accused the defense of it being a stall tactic. But Nourish stood 9:06 up in court and said himself that he felt that his attorneys, he used the word prejudice. 9:11 He said he felt his attorneys were prejudiced towards him. He felt that they weren't 9:15 coming to visit him enough. They weren't ready. That was the big key word that 9:19 he and his defense attorneys have said that they are not ready for this hearing to begin. 9:24 Jury selection started on October 5th, and it took about two and a half days. 9:29 We're talking about over 300 potential jurors summoned for this trial. 9:34 What can you tell us about the process of selecting just 12 jurors and, of course, five 9:40 alternates? The jury selection, it was long. It was exhausting. The first entire day was 9:46 spent just asking people if they were available for seven weeks because that is the length of this 9:51 trial what it is expected to be and you know we saw those hands shoot up right away people saying 9:56 hey I'm not ready to be in this courtroom for seven full weeks but it wasn't that simple you know 10:01 the judge wanted to know each person why they weren't available and then there were follow-up 10:05 questions but they did end up narrowing it down to 11 women and six men. 10:09 So, the defense team attempted something sort of interesting ahead of jury selection. 10:22 On October 1st, they put forward a motion that was seeking to disallow references to 10:28 domestic violence allegations during the jury selection and during the opening statements 10:33 of the trial. 10:34 The judge denied that motion. 10:36 But you know, I wonder sort of what you make of this. 10:41 we heard earlier from a family friend, Sarita, friend of the bots, who talked about taking 10:47 Manta in at one point when there was a disagreement with her husband, and she testified to sort of 10:55 details in regards to their marriage and the stressors in their marriage. 11:01 Yeah, and when it came to that motion, which I actually have right here, 11:05 that was filed by the defense. They didn't want the prosecution to bring up any of the 11:10 specific domestic violence accusations between Nuresh and Manta. 11:14 They said that they didn't think prior bad acts should be brought up to the jurors, 11:18 and they believed it could potentially prejudice the jury pool and make them take a stand. 11:23 But domestic violence, I mean, it's such a big part of this case as we did here, 11:27 Sarita say. I'll add that during Sarita's testimony, 11:30 there was a portion of that where the defense objected and there was a big pause 11:35 where the judge and the prosecution had a lot of questions for Sarita, 11:39 and it almost felt like the jury was taken out of the room 11:42 and it felt like they were kind of asking her to testify 11:45 while the jury wasn't there 11:47 and the judge ended up allowing her testimony. 11:49 Mm-hmm. 11:50 So I wanna play a little bit of Sarita's testimony. 11:53 And what was on her face? 11:55 No, it was a little bit of bruise on her left cheeks. 11:59 And did you see a bruise on her? 12:01 Yes, on the video. 12:06 Did she talk to you about how that bruise got there? 12:09 He said, she said he hit her. 12:13 Did mom ever talk to you about divorce? 12:16 Oh yes. 12:18 What did mom to tell you about divorce? 12:21 She says she has been trying so hard to keep that relationship with Norris and he's been 12:29 like hitting her so many times he was cheating her and after the postpartum their relationship 12:34 was not good. 12:35 I invited Norris at my house after she came to my house the next day I invited Norris 12:40 in my house. Me and my husband, we wanted to have a conversation like, why are you guys 12:44 fighting? What's happening? And the notice point was like, he is not happy because he's 12:50 not cleaning her house. 12:52 So this alleged history of domestic violence could definitely be crucial in this case. 12:57 I can see this being a big part of the prosecution's argument. And we want to remind people, 13:02 you know, domestic violence doesn't have to be physical. It can include financial, 13:07 emotional, and mental abuse. 13:08 Yeah. They talked a lot about how, specifically, Serita, she talked about how Manta told her that 13:14 he took her phone. He disconnected her phone. He removed her from her bank accounts. So, 13:20 there's that financial abuse that they're making accusations of. And then the complications with 13:25 Nuresh's family, his parents were helping. And Nuresh had actually told me that that was one 13:31 of the arguments that he and Manta had. She was making, to quote him, he said, 13:37 she was making demands and that was regarding his parents 13:40 and their involvement in raising the little baby. 13:45 And you know, this trial comes at the same time 13:48 as a few others with mentions of domestic violence. 13:51 Just last week, we covered the Caleb Flynn trial here 13:55 on Case by Case. 13:57 That happened in Tip City, Ohio. 13:59 He was a music pastor, 14:01 found guilty of murdering his wife. 14:02 He was having an affair. 14:04 And just two days after that verdict, 14:06 Rapper Rick Ross was arrested on a battery charge from a past relationship, though Ross's 14:12 attorney says that he was wrongfully accused. 14:15 October is actually Domestic Violence Awareness Month. 14:20 The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 43 million women and 20 million 14:25 men experience what they call contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking 14:31 by an intimate partner in their lifetime. 14:33 I think it's important to remember just how often this happens. 14:38 And that hasn't been lost on those who've been backing the support for Mamta. 14:43 They've had several domestic violence support events and are really using Mamta's story 14:48 to encourage women to speak up, especially in the Nepalese community, if they're experiencing 14:52 any kind of abuse. 14:54 Just to sort of put it all in context, I also want to talk a little bit more 14:57 about the prosecutor's strategy here. 15:00 Opening statements began last week, October 7th, since then the prosecution has been presenting 15:06 their case to the judge and the jury. 15:09 In their opening statements, the prosecutor actually referred to some of the work that 15:14 you and your fellow reporters have done at WUSA 9 when you interviewed Nuresh Bhatt. 15:20 I want to play some of that and then we'll talk about what it was like to see your 15:23 own work up there. 15:25 You will see inconsistent statements. You will see unbelievable spin as to where 15:32 Mopta went, where she could be. You're gonna hear the defendant tell the police 15:40 that he and his wife Mopta had a fight and that Mopta went to either New York or 15:47 Texas to go see her sisters and that she broke her phone. You're gonna hear 15:53 Did the defendant tell a journalist that Mamta and him didn't have a fight and he has no 16:01 idea where Mamta is? 16:09 Ask yourselves this question. 16:11 Why is the defendant telling different stories to the same question? 16:18 The same answer applies, premeditated first degree murder. 16:26 So they actually did play some of your reporting. 16:29 What was that like? 16:30 Yeah, they played our entire interview. 16:32 They played my colleague Rafael's interview with him outside the police department on 16:35 August 12th. 16:36 And then they played my interview with him at his front door from August 14th. 16:41 And you know, it's odd because we do so many interviews like this. 16:46 I mean, it's part of the day to day. 16:48 You're going and you're trying to get answers and clarity. 16:51 And I was just at his front door doing my job trying to get answers for the community 16:56 who had been reaching out to us over and over asking for these answers, I went there to get those 17:01 answers. And speaking to him, I kept asking questions and people have asked me, oh, why did 17:07 you ask that question? That was an interesting thing to bring up. And I'm just a nosy person. 17:13 I was just doing my job and trying to get those answers and get the clarity. 17:18 But you're a curious person, nosey, no. 17:22 So now, you know, this is obviously the prosecution's sort of dream scenario because now it's not 17:30 about what other people heard him say. 17:33 It's what's coming out of his own mouth that the jury gets to see and hear eventually. 17:38 How do you expect these sort of inconsistencies to play out in the trial? 17:42 Yeah, I mean, we heard the prosecution say right in his opening statements that 17:45 his cases based around the inconsistencies in Noresh's story, 17:50 the fact that he tells police one thing during the welfare check. 17:53 He says, Momta left, she broke her phone. 17:55 She's with her sisters in New York or Texas. 17:57 We obviously have learned that Noresh, 18:00 or that Momta doesn't have any blood sisters, 18:03 but in the Nepali community, 18:05 close friends call each other's sister and she does have 18:08 those close friends' sisters in New York and Texas. 18:11 They've also testified that she was not with them. 18:13 But then he did end up telling police that he believed she was home the night of Wednesday, 18:19 the 31st, which is what he told me. 18:21 He said they had dinner together and that he went to bed with the baby and he didn't 18:25 know if she came to bed. 18:26 He couldn't answer that question for me. 18:28 He didn't seem to have an answer for police about that. 18:32 Manassas Park detective Claudia Ventura testified last Thursday saying that she spoke 18:36 to both Noresh and a close family friend on August 6th, 2024, and that was the 18:42 day after Nuresh filed that missing person's report for his wife, I want to 18:47 play a little bit of the detective's testimony here. 18:50 Yes, so at this point, I remember going to back to the police station and 18:56 letting my supervisor and the detectives know that something is wrong. 19:02 No mom would leave their child and me being a mom myself, it definitely stuck 19:08 with me and I remember thinking I need to do something. Something's not right. 19:17 So what else did Detective Ventura speak about? Tell me a little bit more about her testimony. 19:23 She talked a lot. She actually went to Noresh's home two more times after that because she 19:27 said she, you know, this case was all over social media and the community played a huge 19:31 part in getting the word out about Momta being missing and was the reason we started 19:36 covering this case initially. And so she was seeing those same social media posts that we were seeing 19:41 and a lot of people were in the comments saying, where is Mamta's husband? Why is he not speaking? 19:47 Why is he not addressing the media? Why are the police not saying anything? Because, you know, 19:52 initially police didn't believe that she hadn't just left. They had no reason not to believe 19:59 what Nuresh had told them. And so one of the things that Detective Ventura brought up is 20:04 that after she had that initial conversation with Nuresh and then with one of the friends 20:09 which we believe with Sarita Nipani or Sunita Bandari, those were two of the friends that 20:14 were really speaking up. 20:15 They had come to her and told her and other officers that they were really concerned about 20:20 Mamta, that she wouldn't just leave her 11-month-old child without telling someone 20:25 that she was a nurse, she was very family-oriented. 20:28 And it was at this point that Detective Ventura said she went to her supervisors 20:31 And she said something is wrong and she changed the status of mom touch from voluntary missing to involuntary 20:38 Meaning she no longer believed that she had left on her own. Mm-hmm. Because I mean 20:43 They're seeing her taking pictures with her child. She's just she's a very devoted mother 20:48 It just it just doesn't happen that way. We've seen women, you know walk away from, you know, volatile 20:55 marriages, often part of the reason they stay is because they want to stay with 21:00 their children. So that just seemed a little odd to investigators. 21:03 It did. And she had a TikTok account that Detective Ventura she referred to 21:09 several times and I've seen those videos on on TikTok. We've all reported on 21:13 those videos. It's her and the little baby and they're dancing and she's 21:17 smiling. You can see the baby looking up at her and it's just these special 21:20 moments that luckily her daughter will have forever, but it also signified to her that 21:26 something was off because she wasn't posting on social media. 21:29 And I think one of the other big warning signs to her was that Mamta was not in touch with 21:34 her mother who, as you heard earlier, they spoke two to three times a day every single 21:38 day. 21:39 Mm-hmm. 21:40 So there we have some of what we're going to hear from the prosecution. 21:44 What about the defense? 21:45 We heard the opening statements from the defense as well on October 7th. 21:48 Before we get into that, let's play a little sound. 21:50 And you're going to find, I think, that most of the police and the forensic work 21:55 speaks to the Commonwealth's accusation that Mr. Bott defiled and then hid Montecafle's body. 22:05 And I'm genuinely sorry that you are being asked to listen to a truly gruesome and horrifying 22:14 story. And as you listen, remember that your job is not to determine guilt or 22:26 innocence. Your job is to decide if the state has ruled out every reasonable 22:35 doubt that you have about whether Mr. Bott did the things they accused him 22:42 I mean the most obvious sort of hole for the prosecution is that there is no body 22:49 but there also as the defense sort of points out describing kind of a really 22:54 gruesome way of disposing of Mamta's body and so one would expect there would 23:01 be a lot of evidence to indicate that this is what has happened that appears 23:07 Here's to be the direction that the defense is going in. 23:11 Yeah, and the prosecution has said 23:13 they have a lot of digital and forensic evidence 23:16 that's gonna really paint the picture for the jurors. 23:19 The defense has said there's a lot of holes, 23:21 that there's a lot of gaps in the story. 23:23 And you know, while the prosecution has said 23:25 they believe that Nourish Botte killed his wife, 23:27 dismembered and dumped her body parts, 23:30 they've not actually shared how they believe he killed her. 23:34 And they haven't clarified exactly. 23:36 And this is yet, they may do this further on down the road, but they haven't explained 23:40 exactly when they believe he committed these crimes. 23:44 He's accused of committing. 23:46 So the defense is really pushing on that. 23:48 And I can add that since in the days that have passed since opening statements, the 23:52 defense, when they are making these objections, they're, for example, Detective Ventura, 23:58 when she was talking about Nuresh's style of speech and how he talks very quickly 24:02 And I think she said that he seemed to ramble, another officer said he over shares, and the 24:08 defense made a point to say, you don't know him, so you don't know his speech the way 24:12 he normally talks. 24:14 And the defense made a point to say, he's a talkative guy. 24:16 He likes to talk. 24:17 There's no doubt around that. 24:19 She also pointed out that everyone, when they're in a stressful situation, they react 24:23 differently. 24:23 And she encouraged the jurors to keep that in mind. 24:26 But she has brought up that language barrier as an issue that maybe Nuresh Bhatt didn't 24:30 really understand the questions. 24:32 he was being asked. 24:33 So then my question to you is, is he expected to testify? 24:38 He has not said yet and that was asked prior to the jurors being brought in. 24:43 He was asked, are you going to testify? 24:45 And the defense said, we're not sure yet. 24:47 We're not clear if he's going to make that decision. 24:50 And he has every right to make it or not make it. 25:00 There was something else that sort of struck me about the defense's opening statement. 25:03 I want to play it first and then we can talk. 25:05 And in the nature of things in a murder accusation, like the state has brought, a lot of what you 25:11 hear will come from observations of people who had already picked sides, who were predisposed 25:20 towards one person or another. 25:24 And your job as jurors is to weigh people's biases, listen to their motivations to embellish 25:32 or to fabricate. 25:34 What time and memory, what the effect of time and trauma 25:38 has had on their memories 25:41 as you listen to each of the witnesses put forward? 25:44 Does it seem like they're sort of almost trying to guard 25:47 against kind of a bias against him? 25:52 Definitely, and the defense attorney has said repeatedly, 25:55 you need to stick to the facts and keep the facts in mind, 25:57 keep the emotion out of it, stick to the facts. 26:00 She said the defense doesn't have those facts 26:02 And there are going to be a lot of gaps that need to be filled in at the end and she told them they shouldn't use their 26:07 Imagination they should make their decision based on what facts were actually presented 26:12 There is sort of also talk about whether or not the defense team was unprepared 26:16 Tracy Lennox is bots attorney. She's also the chief public defender 26:20 She kind of spoke to the suggestion that the team was unprepared 26:25 that they received over a hundred pages of 26:28 discovery and it was really difficult for them to secure witnesses. Can you tell me a little bit 26:34 more about sort of this new evidence that they say they received? From what I understand about 26:38 that new evidence that she was referring to when she made that statement the prosecution responded 26:43 by saying a lot of that was just metadata and he was saying you know I can't tell you how to 26:48 process what the evidence we're giving you is but I wouldn't think you need to go through 26:53 every piece of evidence. The judge has repeatedly denied, as of late, her motions for a continuum, 27:00 citing that this has been going on for two years. August 22nd of 2024 is when Nuresh was 27:06 originally arrested on that first charge of concealing a dead body. Obviously, the charges 27:11 were added for the rest of it, but he has been sitting in jail for more than two years now, 27:17 and the judge said he has the right to a trial fast, and the family has a right to get answers. 27:23 I'll add that Judge Kimberly Irving, she's been, 27:26 from what I've seen, she's been asking the defense 27:29 when they've made comments, 27:30 and I've seen them make comments even this week 27:31 about how they weren't prepared for this particular witness. 27:35 And for one example, on Wednesday, 27:37 she gave the defense attorneys a quick break 27:40 to kind of get their bearings together 27:41 and come back and ask questions 27:43 of the witness who was on the stand. 27:44 They came back and they didn't have 27:46 any questions for the witness. 27:47 So I did think that was interesting, 27:49 but she is aware of it, 27:50 and she said that she's trying to be respectful 27:52 and try to help them out. But at the end of the day, while these particular attorneys may not 27:58 have been the ones that were initially assigned to being arrest spots attorneys, it has been in 28:04 the public defender's office since the very beginning. And so for whatever reason, the defense 28:09 really only cross-examined a few of the prosecution's witnesses. When you listen to the cross-examination, 28:16 what sort of direction were things going and what did you make of it? 28:20 Yeah. 28:21 So most of her questions are centered around, well, do you know Nuresh? 28:24 When you're making these comments, like I said before about him rambling or over-sharing, 28:29 you don't know his personality. 28:31 So just reminding people to not be judging him when you don't know that he's acting 28:36 a certain way because of a certain situation or if that's just how he always is. 28:40 And the other thing she's continuously been bringing up is that language barrier I'll 28:44 add that Nuresh does have interpreters in the courtroom. 28:47 there are four interpreters who've been swapping in and out. They are there for him, but they're also 28:51 there for Momtah's mother and brother. Nuresh has not been wearing the headphones. The jurors were 28:57 instructed that they are not to take that into consideration, but it has been noticed by at least 29:03 the other reporters in the room. I wonder if that's also part of the reason why this trial 29:10 might go on for seven weeks or so, is that just when you have translation issues, you 29:14 I'm sort of saying a lot of things twice. 29:17 Yeah, we are seeing the translators. 29:20 They've been very busy. 29:21 They've been helping out with some of the witnesses 29:23 who have been called, but they've only word for word 29:27 had to translate for I believe two witnesses, 29:29 including Momta's mother, but they are there. 29:33 So if he needs them, they are there to help him out. 29:35 And he has those headphones sitting there 29:37 if he does have questions or need some clarity. 29:40 So I wanna go back to the way we started this podcast 29:42 which is hearing from Mamta's mother, Gita. Her testimony was emotional, it was tearful. 29:50 They showed pictures of Mamta with her daughter and other pictures of her. I can't imagine what 29:56 this was like for her mother to go through. It's been incredibly hard from what I've seen. 30:01 She's been sitting in front of me for a lot of the trial next to Mahesh. You can see the pain 30:05 in her eyes. We also saw her up there on the stand start to get emotional when she was 30:10 being asked about her daughter. And I've seen her get emotional and kind of look away. 30:15 And one of the supporters is there sitting with her and just kind of bury her head and 30:19 their shoulder. So it is hard to watch because she just wants to know where her daughter 30:23 is. 30:24 Right. And you know, let us not forget that at the center of this is a victim who you 30:29 will never see in the courtroom, which is Mamta and Nuresh's daughter, who is 30:34 now left growing out, growing up rather without a mother. And I just think about 30:39 her own mother on the stand, you know, probably wanting to get answers not just for herself, 30:45 but for her grandchild, who's really only left with photos and videos and memories that are 30:52 probably quickly fading. It's definitely tough. And I know I've spoken to the supporters and the 30:57 family about the little girl and she seems to be doing well. They told me that she has a 31:03 similar personality to Mamta. She's now three years old. And, you know, I think what's
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