Jack & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - All Quotes - No Discussion

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Another handy reference thread - all quotes of Tammi Smith and Jack Smith from Nancy Grace. You can just link directly to the post that has the quotes you're referring to. Use the 'Search This Thread' function for quick and easy searches of the thread for the quotes you're looking for.

No Discussion - Reference Only

To make searching the thread easier, I changed all the names to be consistent at the beginning of the quotes, for example, I changed J. SMITH to JACK SMITH.

I also removed superfluous talk by Nancy Grace, as her intros tend to be overly long. I kept only what was needed for context.

Note that this is only what Jack and Tammi say, along with whoever is interviewing them. No other show guests are included.

Here are the links to the transcripts for all Nancy Grace shows on Gabriel Johnson:

[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4798013"]All Nancy Grace Transcripts for Gabriel Johnson[/ame]


Thanks,
BeanE
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 6 - Part 1 of 6

GRACE: I`m very disturbed. I`m disturbed about why — why didn`t she just go ahead and give you the baby? Why give the baby to some people she just met at some public park, for Pete`s sake? Jack Smith, what do you think?

JACK SMITH: Well, you know, again, we don`t know what`s in her mind. And I would love to think I know what`s in her mind, but I don`t. If I did, baby Gabriel would be with us and back here in Arizona. The reason she didn`t give him to us is because the father was saying he wasn`t going to do that. And this is the first time we had had a chance to be with — to talk with the father. So he was saying he wasn`t going to do it. So that basically left her with no alternative but to go…

TAMMI SMITH: In her mind.

JACK SMITH: … in her mind, but to go.

GRACE: Tammi Smith, did she ever want money from you guys?

TAMMI SMITH: Never once did she ask for anything — not a ride, not a meal, not to borrow a quarter, nothing.

GRACE: Do you think, Tammi, that she is capable of killing this baby?

TAMMI SMITH: You know, from what I know of her, I don`t believe so. But I`ve only known her maybe three or four weeks.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 6 - Part 2 of 6

GRACE: Have you spoken to her since she has been behind bars, Mr. Smith?

JACK SMITH: We did. We talked to her, and we had the local channel here tape it so that there was no questions about what was said and what was done and how it was done.

GRACE: What did you learn?

JACK SMITH: Well, one thing we learned is where the car was because it was right after that up-feed or upload that — it`s our understanding that right after the upload, we did find out where the car was. So they were able to find the car after we did the interview. Nobody said that it was attributed necessarily to that, but it was — they found it at 4:00 o`clock, and we were — did the interview at 2:00, and then they immediately uploaded it. So that came from it.
To be honest with you, we had a list of questions — the questions, you know, we wanted to — the main question that we wanted, obviously, was, Where is Gabriel? Where is this little sweet, wonderful baby? And at that point, she said that she met a couple in the park. And I do have the name of the park (INAUDIBLE) we didn`t know this until the afternoon. It`s Raymond Russell Park.

GRACE: Raymond Russell Park? So she remembered that, but she didn`t remember…

JACK SMITH: No, no.

GRACE: She didn`t remember that?

JACK SMITH: Forgive me. No, this comes from — and I don`t mean to go off track here, but…

GRACE: It`s OK.

JACK SMITH: … but we have — we have focused our life for the last few days since all this happened. We`re on the phone all day, trying to find out as much information. We have contacts. We have sources. Ain`t that cool? We have sources in San Antonio with a radio station and — radio and telephone stations there.

GRACE: So you figured out it was Raymond Russell Park.

JACK SMITH: Raymond Russell Park is where — where they — and we also found out through that source that when she bought the bus ticket, she bought it as Elizabeth Jones.

GRACE: Is it true, Ms. Smith, that you learned she checked in and paid for the hotel room a week ahead of time?

TAMMI SMITH: Yes. She told me that she was paid up until Sunday. And we had her basically ready to come back. Sunday morning, she was going to come back. We had offered to help her with an attorney so that she could keep the custody and the custody would not go to the father.

GRACE: And then out of the blue, she just takes off?

TAMMI SMITH: Yes.

GRACE: Where do you think she got the money, Ms. Smith, to buy the ticket? It`s about 150 bucks a ticket, plus the gas she needed to get from Tempe down to San Antonio.

TAMMI SMITH: All I know is that a few days prior to her leaving, she had told me she had — we saw her dogs. She had two Yorkies. And she sold the two dogs for $500. She rented a room to her roommate for $400 cash, and he confirmed that. And then I believe she got her last — what is it called?

JACK SMITH: Unemployment.

TAMMI SMITH: Unemployment check. And she did have — she did have WIC for the baby, for all his food.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 6 - Part 3 of 6

GRACE: But first, back to Jack Smith and Tammi Smith, the couple that had planned to adopt baby Gabriel. What is giving me a glimmer of hope, Tammi Smith, is that this is very similar to the way that she met you.

TAMMI SMITH: It is. It`s almost exact.

GRACE: What happened?

TAMMI SMITH: I met her in an airport. She was depressed, crying. She — her face was drooped down. Instead of holding the baby here, the baby was down here. And I just knew the second I saw her, there is something wrong there. And she said — I sat down. She said something, and I don`t remember what it was. This was seven months ago. And I just immediately — What do you want to do with your baby, you know? And we — it went on from there.

GRACE: And from there, she was willing to just give you the baby?

TAMMI SMITH: Well, no, not back then. Yes, I did hold the baby in the airport. I held the baby in the plane ride once we got up in the air. She brought me the baby to hold. And then when we were about to descend back down to the ground, she came back and got the baby again. Did not hear from her again once we helped her to her car, once we got back to Arizona from the plane. Didn`t hear from her again until December 8th around 9:00 or 10:00 o`clock at night, saying, Do you still want to adopt him?

GRACE: So this is so similar to what she`s saying happened to baby Gabriel. She meets this couple in a public park, and they were kind and caring and she just gave them the baby. Why do you believe, Mr. Smith, she wanted to give away the baby?

JACK SMITH: You know — and this is something that — and I would like to interject here, if it`s OK. We are for the finding of this baby. We are not on a side. But I think that she`s looking at things through non-normal eyes. Our normal eyes say, That`s crazy. Non-normal eyes say, It happens every day. You give your child — you give your child to a stranger, if you`re going to adopt — but albeit, there`s a lot that goes on before the adoption papers happen. So that`s my guess.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 6 - Part 4 of 6

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMI SMITH: The main thing is that she wanted him with a good family that loved him and that would actually take care of him.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tammi Smith remembers the day almost eight months ago she met Elizabeth and Gabriel Johnson.

TAMMI SMITH: And I just could read it in her face that she did not want to be a mother.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And Tammi says the father wasn`t around and when he was.

TAMMI SMITH: Yes, there were a lot of threats and a lot of things, underhanded things, that were done. Because of his record and because of what the things he had done to her and the baby, there was no way she was going to give him that baby.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tammi says months went by then last month she received a call from Elizabeth.

TAMMI SMITH: She finally called and said, are you ready to adopt him?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The two parties signed legal guardianship papers and Gabriel moved in with the Smiths.

JACK SMITH: We fell in love with him.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But the baby`s dad wouldn`t sign guardianship or adoption papers. Still, Gabriel quickly became part of the Smith family, visiting Santa, playing with 4-year-old Hannah. Then, December 18th, Elizabeth picked up her son to visit his father. Little did the Smiths know, the two were taking off to San Antonio.

TAMMI SMITH: We were trying so desperately to get her back here. And every time she was ready to come back, she would get a phone call threatening her.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Smiths believe the baby is safe and that his mother, now behind bars, will never say where.

TAMMI SMITH: She loved that baby enough that I believe, I believe, that she would probably stay in jail the rest of her life to make sure he was safe from the person that she wants to keep him from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 6 - Part 5 of 6

GRACE: Now, speaking of the Smiths, I want to go back to Jack and Tammi Smith. Two questions. Number one, I think that it would be crucial, since you were around her, you spent time with her and the baby, you`ve spoken to her since she`s been behind bars. What was her state of mind when you spoke to her last, Miss Smith?

TAMMI SMITH: I`m sorry. That wasn`t me — what was her state of mind when I spoke to her yesterday?

GRACE: Right.

TAMMI SMITH: You know, to be honest with you, she sounded a little bit cheery. Whenever she was dealing with the whole custody issue, she was not cheery, she was very depressed and distraught. It seems as though she seemed happier and safer being in jail than she did out of jail and going through this whole custody issue.

GRACE: Mr. Smith, when you were dealing with her about adopting baby Gabriel, what was her state of mind at that point?

JACK SMITH: You know, we — honestly we had some concerns. I mean, again, we`re looking at — as I mentioned earlier, we`re looking through normal eyes. It feels — it felt a little odd, but you know what, we felt like that we could be helping this baby also if this mother did have any kind of potential emotional problems.
So we were basically — our theory at that point was we are a baby- sitter. Because we understand the whole principle. We`ve adopted — Hannah is adopted. So we know the process. We — you know, we got Hannah in our house at 4 months old and the adoption wasn`t final until 2 — until she was 2.

GRACE: Let me ask you, guys, something. You have come forward and been very forthright. What, if anything, do you have to gain from coming forward, Miss Smith? I mean, you did not have to put yourself in the public eye at all, but you have. Why?

TAMMI SMITH: And it`s been extremely exhausting. I`ve only had a couple of hours` sleep since yesterday. We`re doing this because we fell in love with this baby. We have nothing to gain except for the fact that we know that we have gotten to the point where we kind of know Elizabeth`s mentality from getting to know her over the past few weeks and we believe we can help find this baby and return — or help to return him to his family.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 6 - Part 6 of 6

GRACE: Back to Jack and Tammi Smith. Jack Smith, isn`t it true that when she was dealing with you guys, she didn`t even want to know where you lived? She didn`t want to know anything about you.

JACK SMITH: No, not — she didn`t because we actually invited her over. Don`t you want to come and see where his room would be? And don`t you want to come and see where his play area would be? And she said, no, I don`t want to know where you live.

GRACE: What was her reason?

JACK SMITH: Because in her mind that — well, in her mind that was the — that was a closed adoption. Again, I can`t think — I can`t think like her. I wish I could and we`d find the baby, but — that`s my only reasoning is that she wanted a closed adoption. She wanted this part of her life and wanted to go — I don`t understand that. My maternal.

GRACE: But that was the same — it`s almost like a script that she`s reading from the. The very same thing she did with them is basically what she did with you. She didn`t want to know anything about you, she didn`t want to know your address, nothing. She just wanted it to be a done deal to have the baby in a happy family.
Good-bye, baby Gabriel.

JACK SMITH: It don`t make sense to us. And that`s the reason we kept hanging on to her and trying to better understand her because it didn`t make any se. But you know what? We understand private adoptions happen every day, and, you know — so I don`t believe.

GRACE: Right.

JACK SMITH: You know what I`m saying. Hopefully.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 7 - Part 1 of 4

GRACE: To Jack and Tammi Smith, thank you for being with us. I`m completely stunned that you`ve been named persons of interest. On the other hand, that doesn`t mean the cops think you took baby Gabriel. I`m interpreting it to mean that they believe you know where baby Gabriel may be. What about it, Tammi Smith?

TAMMI SMITH: Well, I have tried to call the detective, Ramirez (ph), many times today, left two messages with her. It`s not that I know where he is, but like I told your staff, we`ve all been talking for the past couple days, trying to brainstorm where he is. So Yami from Fox News has been brainstorming, and she`s been digging and digging in San Antonio for us. And she gives us all of her leads. And so we go with that. And we`re working with your office, as well, and brainstorming together. So we just have our own ideas about it.

GRACE: Well, I noticed last night that you told us that you had determined the park where the handoff, the alleged handoff, was made by Mommy, 23-year-old Elizabeth Johnson, to this unknown couple that she just happens to meet at the park. How did you know the name of the park?

JACK SMITH: Yami. Yami was the one that had told me, and I — I mentioned to you the connection aspect. Yami — we have been somewhat embraced by them because they feel that we are trying our desperate — desperately trying to find this baby. And help find this baby.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 7 - Part 2 of 4

GRACE: That would-be adoptive couple from Arizona, just with us last night, now named two — a couple — persons of interest in the disappearance of baby Gabriel. But why? And they have taken it upon themselves to appear with us live tonight. Taking your calls.To Jack and Tammi Smith. It`s my understanding, you have volunteered to submit to a polygraph to police. Is that right, Mr. Smith?

JACK SMITH: It is. We did that on New Year`s Eve night when the — because the detectives were out there. And we said, you know, I don`t know what this line of questioning is, but if a polygraph will fix this — and they said yes, yes, it will fix it. We said well, please, bring it on. Set it up for Monday morning. And we haven`t heard from them yet.

GRACE: How often did the mom — mommy, 23-year-old Elizabeth Johnson contact you while she was between Tempe, San Antonio, and Miami Beach?

JACK SMITH: Well, between.

TAMMI SMITH: Do you mean once she left?

GRACE: Yes.

JACK SMITH: She didn`t contact us any between here and there. We only found out when we did the MySpace thing and found her account and then we.

TAMMI SMITH: And then she texted us that message.

JACK SMITH: We text her and all that.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Now I`ve got that message and it says — I`ve got it right here. It says, “I am ever worried this e-mail can be traced to where I am, so I probably won`t e-mail again. But I had to let you know, we are all right, because I know you must be worried sick and I am so sorry for that. I really am.” What was she worried about? Why was she worried about being traced if she had done nothing wrong, Tammi?

TAMMI SMITH: Well, once we did start to talk to her, she said that her plan was to keep running.

GRACE: Running from what?

TAMMI SMITH: Just — she didn`t want Logan to have the baby and we couldn`t adopt the baby because Logan wouldn`t sign the papers. So her idea was to just keep running forever. And we told her you can`t run forever. They`re going to find you. And that`s all in the documents with all the FBI and all that stuff.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 7 - Part 3 of 4

GRACE: Right. To Jack and Tammi Smith, when did you guys try to get the father to agree and learn that he was not part of this. I believe she represented you at the beginning that he was OK with it?

JACK SMITH: She represented in the very beginning that he was back and forth.

GRACE: Yes.

JACK SMITH: Back and forth with that. And so he did not have — we asked to speak with him. He did not have a cell phone at that time. I think he`s living with his father. We couldn`t get a hold of him so that`s when we took the…

TAMMI SMITH: We were supposed to meet up with him and the father at court. When we went to court that day, it was all settled and set up for us to go have lunch together. And go to the park and have them spend time with the baby and discuss it all.But when Elizabeth won custody, they just walked past us and left and they didn`t — they didn`t come back and we waited for about 40 minutes and they didn`t come back.

GRACE: Now, it`s my understanding, Elizabeth never had formal custody.

TAMMI SMITH: She did. She had — she had the custody — physical custody. And then when she went to court, when he was.

GRACE: Let me rephrase. It`s my understanding she had shared custody with the father. They had shared custody.

TAMMI SMITH: No.

GRACE: That he would get to visit. No?

TAMMI SMITH: You`ll have to look at the documents, but I can tell you that she had physical custody and then when they went to court, he was trying to get custody.

JACK SMITH: Sure.

TAMMI SMITH: And the judge gave her custody and said that he could have a visit.

GRACE: OK, hold on.

TAMMI SMITH: That`s all I know.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 7 - Part 4 of 4

GRACE: To Jack and Tammi Smith. First to you, Tammi, did the baby have diaper rash?

TAMMI SMITH: Yes.

GRACE: So in the short time you saw the baby, you know that — I mean, obviously that is a sign of neglect. Right? I mean, you can get diaper rash without being neglected, but it means you`ve been sitting there in soaking wet diapers. Your body — your skin literally sitting in feces and urine for hours on end. I mean urine is like acid on your skin.

TAMMI SMITH: I don`t want to say — I mean, I don`t know that that had has happened. And you know I know babies get diaper rash. I don`t want to say either way, because I wasn`t there when he got the rash but yes, he did have a rash when we got him.

GRACE: Well, I can tell you this much. Between Lucy and John David, both, at age 2, they`ve only had diaper rash twice in their life and that`s when they were on antibiotics that.

TAMMI SMITH: Yes.

GRACE: . caused it to happen. So it doesn`t happen with every baby, I can tell you that much.

TAMMI SMITH: And this was a yeast infection-type rash. Like a bacterial-type rash.

GRACE: Let me ask you something. You two seem very confident that the baby is alive. Because I believe in the short time that I`ve known you, if you believed that baby was dead, you would not have the demeanor you have tonight. You love that baby.

JACK SMITH: Sure.

GRACE: Now tell me why you believe that baby is alive. What do you know that makes you believe the baby is alive, Mr. Smith.

JACK SMITH: It`s just a heart thing. And I`m sorry that that`s probably not the answer that everybody is wanting to hear. But it`s just a heart thing. And we saw in her eyes — it`s very difficult for me because I came from a great home. And it`s hard for me to look in someone`s eyes — and I looked in Elizabeth`s eyes and I saw welling up. And I saw what I felt like was love. Am I a perfect judge of character? I hope in most cases I am. But in this situation, I looked and saw love. I saw, you know, her — the pull and I just have a hard time believing.

GRACE: It`s OK.

JACK SMITH: . that someone with that love can do that.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 1 of 10

CASAREZ: They said that — well, let`s go to the couple. We have got Jack Smith and Tammi Smith. They have just joined us, coming from a long, long day. To Jack and Tammi Smith, did you take polygraphs today with police in Tempe, Arizona?

TAMMI SMITH: Yes. We did.

JACK SMITH: We sure did.

CASAREZ: Talk to us about that. Did they call you? Did you call them? When did you go? How did it all happen today?

TAMMI SMITH: Yesterday, I called Detective Ramirez (ph) at least five or six times and left about four messages with her. She finally called me back at 10:30 last night, and I was very angry and told her, That`s it, I`m tired of this. Set up the polygraph, like I asked you last week, and I want it done tomorrow. And she said, What time? I said 12:00 o`clock. So we were there.

CASAREZ: So you went there. Talk to us — what questions did they ask you? And how long did it take?

TAMMI SMITH: Probably about an hour-and-a-half for each of us, because they have to go through and make sure that they`re covering, you know, their bases and covering themselves before we actually get to take the test. And you know, they take each of us individually and explain everything and sign all kinds of paperwork and stuff.

CASAREZ: To Jack Smith. What were some of the questions they asked?

JACK SMITH: The obvious questions, do we know the whereabouts? Do we — did we have anything to do with it? Those are the — I will say the polygraph test is not what you see on TV. It`s a very strenuous — it`s almost like being strapped into an electric chair. So it`s very intensive. Yes. And we were happy to do it.

CASAREZ: What did they say to you at the conclusion of your polygraph?

TAMMI SMITH: Well, they — I`m, like, Well, come on, let`s bring it out. The media`s out — the media was out there, oh, my gosh, for quite a while. We were hoping that we would get the results to be able to tell people today, but it won`t be today. They have to send it out because they have to actually analyze each question and answer and all that stuff to be able to give a determination of what — what it came out to be. So…

CASAREZ: Now, you have been named persons of interest. We told that — Nancy told that to everybody last night. Did the police talk to you about that today? Did you ask them about it or did they talk to you?

JACK SMITH: Well, we actually asked about that last night when we got home because it was — our question to them was, If we`re cooperating, if we`re doing everything we`ve (SIC) asked you to do, why do you have to take this forum and this stage to try and — if there`s questions that we need answered, why did it take you a week and a day to do a polygraph that we asked you to do on New Year`s Eve day? You know, Why didn`t — why don`t you do this, and it would be very easy — forgive me — it would be very easy if it was said — if they asked the question, Did you have anything to do with this? And it proves us to not (INAUDIBLE)

CASAREZ: And what was the response? When you asked that, what was the response?

JACK SMITH: I can tell you, and it was — it was very odd to me because the detective said to me, You know, a person of interest is not really that big of a deal. They called her, asked if there were some questions that she needed asked. And she said, yes, there`s some questions we need to ask. She`s out of town. There are some questions we need to ask, and so therefore, they upgraded us to the persons of interest, which – - you know, John Q. Public look at that and say, you know, that must be pointing a finger. It is not. It`s not that. And I think anybody will confirm that — that — it`s just a level up from — and making sure that we are.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 2 of 10

CASAREZ: To Jack and Tammi Smith. Have you had any communication at all today with Elizabeth Johnson?

TAMMI SMITH: No.

CASAREZ: Have you heard anything of where this baby could be tonight?

TAMMI SMITH: Well, I — since I did get to talk to the detectives and give them the information that Yami from Fox News — I`ve become really good friends with Yami with Fox News in San Antonio, and she is our digger. She searches and searches for information. And so I was able to give them the information that she gave me. Finally, I was able to give that to them because it`s very hard to get in touch with anybody over there.

CASAREZ: And what is that information?

TAMMI SMITH: I can give you some of the information, but some I cannot. One piece of information is when Elizabeth left, she had a Garmin, which is a navigation system, hooked up in her car and turned on. And when we met up, this was a place where she told us to meet her so there was no reason to have it turned on.
And from what Yami says, her cell phone was — had a signal in Victoria, Texas, and that was the day that she went missing. And that was the day that she actually got on the bus. So if she had to drive two hours south from San Antonio, why did she drive two hours south down to Victoria, and then drive back up to San Antonio, and then get on a bus to go to Miami? That leads us to believe that that baby is in Victoria.

CASAREZ: And what day was the cell phone significance from Victoria, Texas? What day was that?

TAMMI SMITH: Sunday the 27th. And that was the day that she would not communicate with me by verbal. She only communicated by texting and telling me that she was out of range because she was driving.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 3 of 10

CASAREZ: Let`s — to Jack and Tammi Smith. You know, a lot of people came to me today, so I have to ask it. And I saw it myself, last night. When you were talking, we did see sometimes your hand go over toward your husband`s leg and seemed to touch it and — what was that? Did that mean anything?

TAMMI SMITH: Yes. Natisha is the girl — the — she`s the one from your show that tells us what — how quickly we can answer a question. And her problem with Jack is that Jack rambles and goes on and on and on and on. And so that`s me saying, OK, OK, wrap it up, because they really warned us about that. We need to make our answer very short and precise.

CASAREZ: OK. I`ve got to ask you about a FaceBook entry. I want to show everybody that this is a FaceBook industry, and it is from a Tammi Peters Smith, which would be you…

TAMMI SMITH: Me.

CASAREZ: … and it is from December 23rd, 2009. And it says in part, quote, “Please keep praying for Gabriel and his Mommy`s safety on the road. She found an underground help in Texas that has given her formula, diapers, et cetera, and all the legal formalities. Keep praying for his safety.”
Did you write that, Tammi?

TAMMI SMITH: Yes, I wrote that.

CASAREZ: What do you mean by it?

TAMMI SMITH: OK. What I meant by that is — OK, I was being — I don`t want to — I don`t want to — I don`t want to talk bad about Logan, OK? But I was somewhat threatened by Logan, and I wanted to make sure he understood because we talked back and forth — wanted to make sure he understood that — and in the beginning of that, you`ll see that we`re going to — you know, we`re going to do our, you know, classes to be foster parents and all that.
So I wanted to make sure he knew that we are not interested in his son anymore. And secondly, before Elizabeth went missing, she let us know that she was going to a domestic violence shelter that was going to take care of her, the baby, and everything that they needed. And so I wanted to make sure that he knew that we`re out of it. We don`t want any part of her or the baby or you. And that was my way because the last time me and Logan spoke, he hung up on me, and I couldn`t tell him that. So that was me publicly letting him know. And I think anybody would want to pray for them, too, on the road.

CASAREZ: But you said she found an underground, “underground help.”

TAMMI SMITH: Right.

CASAREZ: That denotes something illegal, something not aboveboard.

TAMMI SMITH: OK. Well, she had mentioned to me the word “underground,” and she mentioned that — at first, she mentioned that it was a domestic violence shelter. And she had used the word “underground” maybe once in the conversation. And instead of saying “domestic violence,” I didn`t want that to make Logan think that I was trying to say he was violent towards her…

CASAREZ: So you`re — you`re saying that…

TAMMI SMITH: … because as far as I know, he was not.

CASAREZ: … she told you she found a domestic violence shelter in San Antonio?

TAMMI SMITH: She didn`t say it was in San Antonio, but yes.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 4 of 10

CASAREZ: But I want to go back to Tammi Smith. Right before the commercial break, you told us that Elizabeth had told you, and referred to it as an “underground help” at least once — that she had gone to. When did she tell you this?

TAMMI SMITH: She told me, I believe it was the day before that Sunday that she had found a domestic violence — she didn`t tell me a name. She just said that that was her plan to go there and they would take care of everything because that was our last plea to come back. I had a friend in Nashville that works with attorneys call her and plea to her to come back here to Arizona to court on Monday. I had my attorney call her and plea to her to come back here and go to court on that Monday, so — yes.

CASAREZ: So you say that she said to you the Saturday before the Sunday — so you`re saying — the Sunday of the 27th, she left…

TAMMI SMITH: Right.

CASAREZ: … San Antonio. So she was in San Antonio when she told you she had found an underground domestic violence shelter, a place to go?

TAMMI SMITH: Right. And my guess is, I believe when she got to Miami, I believe that`s kind of the place that she went to, some kind of teen hostel place, and maybe that`s what she was talking about. And maybe she was partially telling me the truth, but it wasn`t really going to be her and Gabriel, it was going to be her.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 5 of 10

CASAREZ: Now what is your — to Jack and Tammi Smith, what is your connection with Nashville?

JACK SMITH: Well, I was in the music business for about 35 years. So I lived in Nashville for about that long. And then Tammi moved there and we met about 12 years ago and we`ve been together pretty much for the last 10.

CASAREZ: So what was the last time you were in Nashville?

JACK SMITH: Last time I was in Nashville was probably about a year and a half ago? Two years ago maybe?

CASAREZ: Do you talk to a lot of people in Nashville?

JACK SMITH: My family. My brother`s there. My two sons are there. Yes, after 35 years you do have friends there. Certainly.

CASAREZ: So what do you think about all these tips coming from a place that you used to live in?

JACK SMITH: I have no earthly idea. No earthly idea. Nashville`s a beautiful town.

CASAREZ: When Elizabeth Johnson has contacted you via text or phone calls, has it been on your cell phones or your home phone?

JACK SMITH: We don`t have a home phone. We have cell phones. And all those logs have been given voluntarily to the detectives.

CASAREZ: That`s what I wanted to ask you. So have you given the cell phones, themselves, to law enforcement?

TAMMI SMITH: No, they just photocopied all the texts and the phone logs and all that stuff. They just made copies of basically the card or whatever, you know?

CASAREZ: Had they told you anything about that GPS that you say was on Elizabeth Johnson`s car? If it was the type that would have capability of showing exactly where she rode, if it was on, or if it wasn`t on?

TAMMI SMITH: No, I just told Detective Ramirez about it last night, and I told the other detectives about it today. Because I just — after talking to Yani yesterday afternoon I was in a rush to get here and didn`t know the directions and I was like, oh my gosh, my GPS is dead.
And then I turned and said, oh my god, she had a GPS in her car. And so it goes from there.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 6 of 10

CASAREZ: To Jack Smith and Tammi Smith, you know, I have to ask you this. Why do you come on television? We appreciate hearing from you, hearing what you know. What motivates you to come on television instead of just working with police or just staying home and waiting for the phone to ring, trying to contact Elizabeth?

JACK SMITH: That certainly would be the line of least resistance, I can tell you. But we held him for eight days. Anybody that knows us knows that we don`t give our love away easy. We gave it away to this baby and we`re still loving this baby by trying to do everything humanly possible. And I stand accountable to that every single day.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 7 of 10

CASAREZ: Well, let`s ask Jack Smith and Tammi Smith. Why do you attack Logan? You know, I read a lot of legal documents today of affirmations that he made under oath about the inappropriateness of Elizabeth Johnson as a mother. The neglect that she allegedly showed the children.
Why wouldn`t you want this father that appeared in all respects to love his child to get his child?

JACK SMITH: Well, again, you`ve got to understand that in the very beginning we felt that the facts were what was most important. We weren`t there the day before to see if Gabriel was happened to be in a diaper that was — all we saw that was she went to every parenting class, that she went to — his shot record was completely up to date. So you know, if you take everything in that little segment, she could be considered a good mother.
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 8 of 10

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMI SMITH: When we first got to talk to Elizabeth she told me, you tell Logan he`s going to sign those papers and five days later I`ll bring the baby back and I`ll sign the papers. Otherwise I`m not bringing him back.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police are now saying they have indications Gabriel may still be alive. Gabriel`s father says after Gabriel`s disappearance he received adoption notice from a couple who allegedly tried to convince him to give Gabriel up.

LOGAN MCQUEARY: They want me to sign the paperwork. When Gabriel disappeared they said basically, you know, if you really care about your son and you want him back and you want him to bring her back — or Elizabeth to bring him back that you`ll sign the paperwork and then she`ll bring him back to us and you`ll know he`s safe.
And I said, no, I`m not signing paperwork.

JACK SMITH: We have no papers to sign.

TAMMI SMITH: We don`t even have papers.

JACK SMITH: There are no papers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)
 
Jack Smith & Tammi Smith on Nancy Grace - January 8 - Part 9 of 10

CASAREZ: I want to tell everybody, just to remind you. There is a criminal complaint out of the state of Arizona, and this is what Elizabeth Johnson is being held on in Florida. The charge is custodial interference. Well, as part of that complaint there is a summary. Now this is not rumor, innuendo. This is on the criminal complaint and it says that the last-known whereabouts of Elizabeth Johnson was from her cell phone pings in Victoria, Texas, headed toward the Mexican border. Now we do know she ended up in Florida. She is incarcerated in Florida. But I`ve got to go out to Tammi Smith on that. Talk to us again about your thoughts about Victoria, Texas. There`s not a date on this. And when do you say her cell phone pinged in Victoria?

TAMMI SMITH: They said it was on the 27th. And that was the day that she sent the text that he was dead and that was the day that she wouldn`t speak to me verbally.

CASAREZ: OK. That`s the day that she did leave on the bus from San Antonio to Florida?

TAMMI SMITH: Yes.

CASAREZ: So you`re saying she had to go to Victoria and come all the way back to San Antonio?

TAMMI SMITH: Correct. She went two hours south and then came back up to get on a bus.
 

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