Dee Warner's Husband Found Guilty for Her Murder

0:00Glad you're with us Monday through Friday noon to 2 and if you can't be here you can always go back and podcast us at wjr.com be sure to have the free wjr app and now 2 we have the Facebook and YouTube pages live video streaming while you're on your way to making each and every day count each day as a gift and I do thank you for choosing to be an important part of the best and brightest audience in all of radio as we try to deliver to you relentless positive radio it's not always easy but we do our best one of the guys who helps us do our best is Todd flood Todd is a managing partner founder of flood law PLLC and host of the award winning behind the bench with Todd flood show on wjr here to fill us in on a story that you might have been following probably more closely than me Dale Warner the husband of D Warner found guilty of her murder Todd you're here to report

1:04on that and anything else that tickles your fancy nice to have you here thanks for having me Paul w always great here and you tell me about this yeah tell me about this to come see farmer so he strangled and murdered his wife and put his wife in a fertilizer tank and the body no one could find a body we were hired flood law was hired to do what is called a declaration of death case and you know basically to show that she was not just missing out on some you know island having cocktails she was actually dead we won subsequent to that the prosecutor filed murder charges against Dale Warner was in prison for the last three years and during that time he was in prison I will say my hats off to law enforcement the prosecutors office they found the body they found the body in the barn in this fertilizer

2:07tank and ultimately I mean that was just hard you know going through search warrants and search warrants and you know while you're trying to prosecute a no body case it got a lot better when they actually found the body and she was in her pajamas and duct tape and strangled it was just a horrific horrific death let me interrupt you because I'll forget to ask the question yeah sure um that's pretty good legal work to find someone guilty of murder when there's no body isn't that the point I mean isn't that true it's very difficult when there's nobody very difficult very difficult but they they ultimately did find the body but he'd already been spending time in prison for murder no no it wasn't for murder no no he was in jail not being released on bond while he was waiting trial he was in jail because there was uh he couldn't reach the bond there was

3:07it you know one of the few cases you don't get a bond on murder being one of them treason than others but murder so he was a waiting trial during the time he was a waiting trial while he was sitting in jail they found the body then they go to the jury and it was a top you know it was interesting case um but ultimately the treated the right thing the prosecution if anyone wants to master class on direct examination and cross examination and watching a Michigan State Trooper I my hats off the sergeant detective juror from MSP because he was the guy that spent 40 hours a week on this case every week maybe 60-70 hours a week on this case for the last three years he did a really amazing job and my hats off to the law enforcement and to Jackie Weiss and David Crete they did great and I and I will give my hats off to the defense attorney Mary Shardier she did a fine job herself but ultimately at the end of the day the jury saw through all of it

4:08and convicted Dale and he is going to have probably a minimum sentence of 25 years probably more than that his guidelines are is we calculate them are about 25 years and he'll probably come out of prison in a box realistically I think he's in his late 50s when when they finally unbelievable work to find the Warner the way they did was that enough did they get some DNA off of her body to tie in her husband to so they know for sure it was Dale Warner who did it well it was on his barn there were surveillance videos and the jurors that saw the surveillance videos saw him taking the welding equipment from one barn to another to weld the tank shut and there was a fingerprint on the tank of his so and there was you know a loader in the in the case where he moved the tank so there was a lot of good evidence and and not only direct evidence but circumstantial evidence

5:13to show that he murdered her it was I mean proof beyond a reasonable doubt I would say it was proof beyond a shadow of a doubt but at the end of the day they had to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and it was pretty clear I mean it was very convincing if you listen to the 1415 witnesses of how he treated his wife how he abused his wife how the you know can tank resist this you know the motive even though they don't have to prove motive the motive was that he was going to divorce him and on that day he murdered her and this was all about money really about money because he was running a business in the farm and you know he even know you don't have to prove money or motive this was realistically the case and how it came to fruition not a show is what a show yeah sad sad case but law enforcement did their job it's a hard job I told all of them you know take a taken much needed vacation and you know I know the family well

6:15and this is therapeutic cathartic to the extent that they can get some closure finally right they can they can move to the next chapter of morning and grieving and get some peace for their mom and their sister and as I read this what a story regarding D Warner's brother Greg Hardy who was immediately suspicious of Dale and led a five-year campaign for his conviction he's as he put it I thought every day for five years it was very difficult to get validation it took nearly to the very end Greg was a champion for his sister he really was and the you know he was frustrated he was tired he but he fought through everything I think he went through a lot of a lot of issues trying to get justice for D and posted billboards paid out of his pocket and did he campaigned to get this and you know when they hired me to to get the declaration of death to declare someone dead that they're not missing yeah he was the integral part

7:17of that piece of the puzzle along with along with his family where where were the billboards what did the billboards say justice for D justice for D Warner keep it alive right right doing this thing doing this thing so you know my hats off the law enforcement and I prayed for the family that they can get some peace now we're gonna file the wrongful death lawsuit against Dale to recoup whatever assets there are left to give to the kids oh we forget just how complicated these things are because unfortunately we're mostly exposed to them on television I guess that's not unfortunate I wouldn't want anyone to go through this in real life like they just did but on television they always get it done in the from the time yeah 35 minutes that fast right yeah yeah Todd flood managing partner flood law PLLC the founder of flood law and host of

8:19behind the bench with Todd flood right here on WJR we always appreciate your expertise and your kind help Todd thank you I appreciate you and everything you do Paul W thank you we continue in focus on WJR at 142