How did Texas teen Cayley Mandadi die? Her dad and mom discover a clue in her boyfriend’s automobile

This story initially aired on Jan. 20, 2024

Cayley Mandadi, 19, was a sophomore at Trinity University when she was delivered to a Texas hospital on Oct. 29, 2017. She was practically bare, bruised and never respiratory. Her someday boyfriend Mark Howerton advised medical doctors they’d taken ecstasy at a music pageant and she or he handed out after consensual intercourse in his automobile. She died on the hospital.

In February 2018, authorities charged Howerton with Mandadi’s homicide, alleging her explanation for dying was blunt pressure trauma to the pinnacle. 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 automobile. Steele, a scientist, and Baitland, a NASA engineer, launched their own investigation.

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

Using post-mortem pictures and consulting with consultants, they developed a idea.

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

CAYLEY MANDADI’S FINAL HOURS

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

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

But 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 often do. … That’s really how I knew one thing was actually fallacious.

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

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

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

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

Clement did not realize it, however simply hours earlier, Cayley’s mom Alison Steele and stepfather Lawrence Baitland have 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 once 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.

Within hours, Cayley’s dad and mom have been advised there was no hope for restoration. Their daughter, simply 19 years previous, as soon as so energetic, was quickly declared mind lifeless. Baitland and Steele need the world to know what occurred to her.

Alison Steele: All that potential had been destroyed. And not realizing the way it occurred. Or the way it was even doable.

They invited Cayley’s buddies 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 again and again, “this needs to be for one thing, this needs to 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 dad and mom stated goodbye.

Alison Steele: It was very emotional. … But, in fact, we did not need to let her go. But that is what needed to be.

Just days earlier than, issues gave the impression to be going effectively for Cayley. A sophomore communications main at Trinity University in San Antonio, she had joined a sorority and was a cheerleader. And she’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 title 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 advised me was, “I do not know that he desires a critical relationship.” And she 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 usually on Trinity’s campus visiting buddies. That’s the place he met Cayley.

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

John Hunter is Howerton’s lawyer.

John Hunter: I feel that there have been issues together with her relationship with Jett. … And Mark was providing an alternative choice to that.

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

While medical workers tended to Cayley, law enforcement officials 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 have been y’all at at this time?

Howerton advised officers that he and Cayley went to the Mala Luna Music Festival. There they drank alcohol and took MDMA – a drug often called Molly or ecstasy.

Christy Jack is an lawyer based mostly in Fort Worth. “48 Hours” requested her to have a look at recordsdata on this case. She says issues took a troubling flip on the music pageant.

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

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

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

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

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

Rough, stated 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’s when she was like, “I’m not feeling good” however then she simply handed out.

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

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

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

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

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

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

MARK HOWERTON (police interview): She bruises simple. 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 pressure face and head trauma; it was dominated a murder. Mark Howerton was charged with murder. He pleaded not responsible and was launched on bail.

John Hunter: There have been massive 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 often do this.

John Hunter: No.

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

As 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 prefer to see Mark Howerton within the courtroom?

Alison Steele: Like everyone else, I’d strive not to have a look at him an excessive amount of.

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

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW (in courtroom): I feel the easiest way to inform this story … is to start out the place Cayley Mandadi’s life ended. And that is within the automobile of this defendant.

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

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

JOHN HUNTER (in courtroom):Things are usually not all the time as they appear.

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

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

JOHN HUNTER (in courtroom): No one 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 evening when a automobile all of a sudden appeared behind her.

SHARYL LANE (in courtroom): There’s a black automobile behind us honking and flashing the lights. … Before I even get out, I see a gentleman that is hollering and screaming. I open the door. He’s telling me that — his girlfriend just isn’t respiratory. And he wants assist.

When Lane regarded inside Howerton’s automobile, she noticed a disturbing scene.

SHARYL LANE (in courtroom): She was uncovered … And her pants and her garments … have 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.

But 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 advised them he thought she had overdosed?

John Hunter: Correct. But the signs she was presenting have been in keeping with that affected person historical past.

Peter Van Sant: Was this girl crushed or not?

John Hunter: No.

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

John Hunter: By the time that the sexual assault nurse … pictures her … she has been resuscitated. Six instances, I imagine. Maybe 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 manner.

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

OFFICER CHRIS ADAMS: While I used to be taking pictures of him. I seen … the tops of each of his arms.

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

OFFICER CHRIS ADAMS: Yes, sir.

DAVID LUNAN: Unusually purple?

OFFICER CHRIS ADAMS: Yes, sir.

Evidence, investigators imagine, that Howerton did hit Cayley.

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

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

Christy Jack: … even in such a confined area. … it will’ve been comparatively simple for him to trigger that form of injury 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 apprehensive about himself, he would have advised the police to get a warrant.

Instead, 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 manner?

The solely one who may counter Howerton’s story was lifeless. Investigators hoped Cayley’s stays may communicate on her behalf. Dr. Suzanna Dana carried out the post-mortem and stated the proof reveals Cayley was crushed to dying.

DR. SUZANNA DANA (in courtroom): She had quite a few what I name blunt pressure accidents to her face and her head. …

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

DR. SUZANNA DANA:  That’s a bruise. That’s a contusion.

But throughout cross-examination, Hunter will get Dana to confess that no less than one Cayley’s accidents was brought on by her medical care.

JOHN HUNTER (in courtroom): So CPR may cause a whole lot of totally different accidents, not simply merely superficial ones. Right

DR. SUZANNA DANA: Yes. 

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

DR. SUZANNA DANA:  I imagine so. Yes.

Whatever the jury thinks about how Cayley died, they’re about to be taught a lot extra about her troubled love life with Howerton.

A DEFENSE WITNESS MAKES A STUNNING CLAIM

In the agonizing ultimate hours of Cayley Mandadi’s life, her buddies gathered to say goodbye. Cayley’s childhood good friend Taylor Clement met her school buddies for the primary time. They bonded speaking about Cayley.

Taylor Clement: Even in that state of affairs, she was bringing folks shut that may’ve by no means met earlier than.

Some of these buddies now nervously wait to testify in Howerton’s homicide trial.

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

MORGAN SAMPSON: I do.

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW: Who is that this particular person?

MORGAN SAMPSON (voice breaking): It’s Cayley.

Her roommate, Morgan Sampson, advised 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 courtroom): Mark and Cayley have been out on the balcony. And he had thrown her up in opposition to the brick wall —

Cayley ended up going to that social gathering in opposition to Howerton’s needs. Soon, neighbors reported listening to loud banging in Cayley’s room. Campus police officer Roderick Lewis was dispatched to analyze.

OFFICER LEWIS (in courtroom): When 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: Exactly.

OFFICER LEWIS: OK.

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

MARK HOWERTON: Man, no …

OFFICER LEWIS: I would love you to step out right here with my accomplice proper now.

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

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

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

Birchum advised the jurors all of it got here to a head on the music pageant.

JETT BIRCHUM (in courtroom): She stated 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 apprehensive about breaking apart with him?

JETT BIRCHUM: Yes.

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

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

When Cayley did not present up on campus that evening, her buddies began calling her. Howerton answered Cayley’s cellphone.

MORGAN SAMPSON (in courtroom): I used to be like, “Have you seen Cayley?” Or, “Have you heard from her? Like are you together with her?” And he stated, “She cannot speak proper now,” after which hung up the cellphone.

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

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

ALESSANDRA CRANSHAW: And then 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. And then flip and stroll away.

Peter Van Sant: This is vital testimony.

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

Defense lawyer 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 courtroom):  You suggested the police that you simply noticed Mark bodily choose her up and place her in his automobile, is not that appropriate?

JETT BIRCHUM:  Yes, sir.

JOHN HUNTER: And it differs from the testimony that you simply gave at this time, proper?

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

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

JOHN HUNTER (in courtroom): Would it shock you to be taught that the cellphone name you positioned to Cayley Mandadi’s cellphone 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 courtroom): You have been on probation on the time, have been you not, Mr. Birchum?

JETT BIRCHUM: Correct.

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

JETT BIRCHUM:  … offered by the Fifth Amendment.

The injury was accomplished.

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

John Hunter: The impression I feel cannot be understated. It’s — it is an enormous factor to see any person 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 courtroom):  So you have a look at the post-mortem you are going to see—you are going to see what regarded like bruises.

Anderson presents the crux of Hunter’s case: that Cayley’s bruising was triggered 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 courtroom, pointing to post-mortem photograph): Starting right here now we have this jagged line. So, like I stated, it is like a crack in an eggshell, and that could be a cranium fracture.

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

Peter Van Sant: She was in a automobile.

John Hunter: Well, she was in a automobile for parts of … that day. … Hematomas do not kill folks instantaneously.

CHRISTY JACK: I do not suppose that you would be able to 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.

Once the protection rests, prosecutors convey 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 assumed it was reckless for him to have that opinion so definitively with solely an image.

The jurors should now make a momentous determination. 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 be aware to the decide. There might be no verdict.

JUDGE RAYMOND ANGELINI (studying be aware): “After cautious deliberation and dialogue, sadly we can’t come to a unanimous determination.” Ladies and gents of the jury, I’m declaring a mistrial.

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

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

Alison Steele (sighs): It was somewhat bit disheartening. But on the similar time, I used to be mentally ready for that end result.

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

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

David Lunan: Well, certain.

Alessandra Cranshaw: Yeah.

David Lunan: Absolutely.

But it does 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 shocked by his claims that Cayley had a cranium fracture, and her bruising was triggered partly by the organ donation course of.

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

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

While the prosecutors work to handle these claims, protection lawyer John Hunter recordsdata a movement to get the entire case dismissed, based mostly partly on what he says have been Jett Birchum’s lies.

John Hunter: The realizing use of false proof by the prosecution undermines our whole religion and confidence within the judicial system. … If that may occur, then there is no level in even having a trial.

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

Peter Van Sant: You turned investigators?

Alison Steele: We did.

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

She’s a scientist, he is a NASA engineer. They started working.

Lawrence Baitland: I spent hours and hours, um, finding out 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 photograph of a small dot above Cayley’s proper ear. Other 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 is that this that we see behind the ear?

DR. SUZANNA DANA:  That’s a bruise. That’s a contusion.

Cayley’s dad and mom 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 automobile.

In truth, in a recorded audio interview with police the day Cayley died, Howerton admitted he had beforehand accomplished 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 tune, second verse.

They’d want proof to persuade a jury. Cayley’s dad and mom headed to a used automobile lot, the place Steele posed in a automobile just like the Mercedes Howerton drove that evening.

Lawrence Baitland: I’d photographed her head in numerous positions whereas I’m holding the post-mortem photos, making an attempt to see in the event that they match up with the door and it is a close to excellent match.

Baitland determined to go a step additional.

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

Building a 3D mannequin of Cayley’s head.  

Lawrence Baitland: … very first thing you are able to do is you possibly can create a stable out of that 3D mesh. And then … you possibly can mission a picture onto it.

And bringing them nearer to having precise proof.

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

Mark Howerton offered the automobile in 2018. Baitland tracked down the brand new proprietor and acquired the automobile.

Peter Van Sant: What’d you consider that?

David Lunan: Uh, effectively, that is new. This is, uh, not one thing I’ve been, uh, accustomed to listening to, uh, in different circumstances.

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

Lawrence Baitland: Sure.

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

The automobile Cayley was fatally injured in is sitting in her mother or father’s driveway. Baitland says driving it residence was a haunting expertise.

Lawrence Baitland: It’s torturous. Um, nevertheless it’s additionally, you recognize, she was displaying us what occurred, you recognize. She was guiding us to this automobile.

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

Lawrence Baitland:  Right. … This won’t retract absolutely, irrespective of how arduous you hit it.

Cayley’s dad and mom determined to make a video to display their idea in courtroom.

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

Lawrence Baitland: If we did the reconstruction ourselves, it will be thought of biased and doubtless thrown out or no less than discredited.

So they employed a non-public investigator to supply the demonstration. They did not even have a look at it in case they have been known as to testify about it.

The video is straightforward: displaying three angles of what Cayley’s dad and mom and their consultants imagine occurred.

Peter Van Sant: Would displaying a jury a video like this doubtlessly 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 reveals the way it can occur. And it solutions quite a few the questions that the jury had within the first trial.

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

John Hunter: It could possibly be from one thing on the hospital, it may have been from one thing earlier than she obtained in Mark’s automobile. … Could 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 somewhat, you recognize, mark on her.

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

Years go by. Alison labored to go the Texas Clear Alert Bill. It permits legislation enforcement to rapidly provoke searches when folks aged 18 to 64 go lacking. In 2021, a district courtroom 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 realizing what was gonna occur.

Hunter filed appeals all the best way to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to listen to the case.

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

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

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

Christy Jack: I do not suppose the stakes could possibly be any increased.

JUSTICE FOR CAYLEY

In May 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.

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

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

Christy Jack: He was dwelling massive and bragging about having crushed the state of Texas in a courtroom of legislation.

Howerton’s attorneys John Hunter and Hallie Pease say performing out on social media was his manner 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.

During the primary trial, jurors had just one cost to think about – felony homicide. This time round, legal professionals add extra costs, together with aggravated assault and criminally negligent murder. Then got here time to think about the video Cayley’s dad and mom 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’d undermine the entire case.

Christy Jack: The decide stated I’m gonna let it in. But in that case … then the dad and mom at the moment are witnesses and they’ll not be allowed to sit down within the trial. … And the prosecution went and talked to the dad and mom, they usually determined to withdraw the exhibit.

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

Alessandra Cranshaw: I mainly advised the jury that … the easiest way to elucidate this case … is to start out the place Cayley Mandadi’s life ended and that is within the automobile with this defendant.

But 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 knowledgeable on home violence who advised jurors Howerton was a textbook abuser, who remoted and manipulated Cayley, and finally turned 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 advantage of the doubt.

John Hunter: The … presentation of how Cayley seems to be within the hospital and the way she regarded 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 stated the excessive ranges of MDMA, or ecstasy, in Cayley’s system may have triggered her mind bleed.

John Hunter: I’ve all the time felt that that was the main precipitating purpose for her dying.

But 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 anyplace of MDMA inflicting a subdural hematoma.

Peter Van Sant: What do you say to that? 

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

Hunter plans one ultimate witness — the previous health worker whose testimony about organ donation and a doable cranium fracture triggered a lot injury 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 advised them Anderson’s claims within the first trial have been irresponsible.

Alessandra Cranshaw: They realized that we have 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 struggle concerning the cranium fracture.

So the protection rests with out Anderson.

Lawrence Baitland: It was a shock. … You may hear a puff within the courtroom …

Now, a second set of 12 folks will decide Mark Howerton’s destiny. It’s an agonizing second await Cayley’s dad and mom.

Christy Jack: This is the second of reality; 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 two 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 pondering, expensive God, that is the ultimate nightmare. He’s gonna stroll outtalk the courtroom.

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

David Lunan: Everyone was hugging one another and expressing their reduction 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 manner 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 good friend Taylor Clement, the wound stays uncooked.

Taylor Clement: I miss my greatest good friend.

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

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

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

Alison Steele: It’s arduous 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 fight to help other victims of violence.

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

Mark Howerton might be eligible for parole in 2033.

“48 HOURS” POST  MORTEM PODCAST

Peter Van Sant and “48 Hours” producer Chris Ritzen talk about following this case for over 5 years, two trials and the unconventional investigation that Cayley’s dad and mom undertook to hunt the reality about what occurred to their daughter.  

Produced by Mary Ann Rotondi  and Chris Young 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 manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.

Peter Van Sant

Peter Van Sant is an award-winning correspondent for “48 Hours, the place his true-crime and justice reporting is featured throughout a number of CBS News broadcasts and platforms. During a profession that spans practically 5 many years, Van Sant has coated lots of the most important occasions of our lifetime.Additionally, Van Sant hosts the top-ranking podcast “Blood is Thicker.”