Dancing on Her Grave (10 page)

The sister—who would be at the trial every day—then asked, “Is there anything she wants me to say on her behalf?”

“It’s very strange for me to say this, but she takes responsibility for her own actions that led to this. That is not to say that what happened is okay. She’s very much that way, in saying I cannot give someone else one hundred percent blame. And I appreciate the fact she is like that. The most important thing she says is, don’t hold the grief and the anger because it will turn your life around. Turn it into a positive and not a negative. And she keeps saying, ‘OWN IT.’”

Celeste said, knowingly, and one could almost see her nodding, sadly, “I have heard her say those words before.”

“That means the grief and the anger, own it. That’s how she describes the word. That way that person doesn’t win. Are you the one that paints? Who paints?”

Celeste said, “I do.”

“She’ll come through you. Some artwork is coming from you, because she is going to inspire you with beautiful things. And with work that will draw money and will help fund projects.”

Celeste said: “Yes, I have been doing that, donating all the monies to Shade Tree, a center for domestic
violence. And I also want her to know her friend Luke who is a lawyer is setting up a scholarship for arts and dance and music in her name.”

Gale said, “Well, you and her friends are beginning to own it.”

At this point, the topic of the Facebook entries Celeste had written that alluded to poltergeist activity in her home were introduced.

Celeste said that when she’d brought Debbie’s things to her home in Atlanta, she’d decided to put a lot of her pictures on the mantel, safely beyond the reach of her dog and her kids. “And on this particular night my kids weren’t home and my dog was in the room with me,” she recalled. “On this particular night, I heard something. And when I went out there to that area, all her pictures were knocked down. There wasn’t an earthquake, and they’re not hanging on the wall; there is no way they could fall over. But they were all on the floor.”

Gale St. John did not pause this time. “It’s her. It’s very much your sister, letting you know she’s there. And that she’s upset and angry still. She is voicing her opinion, as she did so well.” And there was a slight moment of laughter from Celeste in recognition of the willful young woman with a mind of her own.

Then Marta Sosa, the show’s host, asked psychic Gale St. John again if Debbie had a message for her sister.

“There are so many things that are unknown or
unspoken, but don’t fear anything,” Gale St. John reassured Celeste. “Just understand where it came from. There is a book, maybe a diary.”

Celeste said Debbie kept several quote books, and wrote in them. “She also wrote on her computer a lot.”

“If you are ever able to read this, read between the lines,” the psychic advised. “Read between the lines because I feel she writes about her own death.”

Celeste then spoke about another unusual occurrence, which was the lights flickering all over her house. She wanted to know if it was her sister doing that.

Now Gale St. John was emphatic. “Yes! When those lights flicker, give it to her! She has a sense of pride about it! She’s worked very hard to do that! Give it to her!”

There was more laughter, then Celeste said, softly, “I will make sure that I
do.”

The Wait

Facebook, for all of its trappings and extraneous nonsense, also seemed a good outlet for Celeste to share her thoughts not only with friends, but with all who knew Debbie. Mostly, though, she seemed to use it as a public outcry, out of impotence and sadness. For instance, on October 4, 2011, Celeste wrote the following Facebook entry:

“I think of her every day. I can’t seem to get it out of my mind, what could I have done different to save her? And now as the end of the year grows near and I will have to go back to Vegas to face the worthless shit that took her from us I wonder, what will I do? Will I contain myself? Mentally I’m preparing myself from the start, but
how will I really feel when I face him and have the chance to speak my mind in her and my family’s behalf?”

In fact, it was altogether possible that the trial verdict, not to mention any potential sentence that Jason Griffith might receive for the murder of her sister, might not be as harsh as she wished. He had not even gone to trial yet by that time. Griffith might be convicted, yes, but most likely of manslaughter, not murder.

The Clark County District Attorney’s office already stated that the case did not meet the requirements for a capital punishment case, which required three factors: whether the conviction would stand up under appeal; whether there were aggravating factors; and whether a jury would impose capital punishment. It had to be a case of premeditated murder in order to be considered a capital case.

The sister already knew this, but she wasn’t happy about it.

“Yes, I was reading up on the manslaughter sentence in Nevada and it’s from four to ten years,” she said. “I can promise you that if he gets a sentence of that sort at the end by the judge, I’m going to go absolutely ballistic and out of my mind in that courtroom. The thought of it as I was reading was too much for me to bear. No amount of counseling can hold back my reaction to that sentence. It upsets me thinking about it.”

Even knowing that having too strong a reaction inside the courtroom could result in her removal from the court again wasn’t enough to deter Celeste. “Contempt in the courtroom would be the least of my worries if that happens,” she replied irately. “I’d have to be committed to a mental hospital because I would seriously lose it!” The first time Jason appeared in court, Celeste lost it, and started screaming at him in tears. A security guard had to escort her out of the room.

Once she’d calmed down, Celeste told me over the phone, “I think it’s crazy, because he attempted to choke her, the roommate pulled him off, the roommate left, and he continued to choke her. He had time to think.”

But what kinds of mitigating factors might be brought up by Jason Griffith’s lawyers at trial? Public information officer Jacinto Rivera told us that Jason Griffith was under suicide watch at the jail, even though he was segregated from the general population for his own safety.

Griffith had a history of threatening self-harm. In fact, on November 2, 2010, just over a month before Debbie’s murder, a friend of his had contacted the Las Vegas police, saying that he “was concerned for Griffith’s welfare because he had received a text message from Griffith that caused [the friend] to believe Griffith was suicidal.” According to the report, Patrol Officers were dispatched
and responded to Griffith’s residence. Griffith was transported to Mountain View Hospital.

Even more surprising was the discovery that Jason Griffith was still married, though his wife had left him years ago. She did not want to disclose her identity, but did, however, offer some background information regarding his violent tendencies both to himself and to others.

Griffith’s wife stated that in October 2003, he’d punched her in the face and knocked her out. He’d busted her lip, pinned her down, and said, “If you leave me, I’m going to cut my face.” That was before they were married.

She added that he would threaten suicide as a way to try to control her, and that was her breaking point. She had decided to leave once earlier, but then found out she was pregnant and thought she wanted the baby to have a father.

The two married in November 2006 and moved to Nevada in 2007. The woman said Griffith also barricaded himself in the bathroom once, threatening to kill himself. Police officers had had to remove him from the premises.

And then there were the incidents of domestic violence with Debora Flores-Narvaez—three of them—in which he was sometimes the suspect and sometimes the victim. There was no question that the two of them had had a violent relationship. “Records show three previous reports taken under LVMPD,” a police report states. “Griffith
was listed as a victim in one, with Flores-Narvaez listed as the suspect. Griffith was listed as the suspect of domestic violence once, and was arrested for battery, domestic violence and coercion once. In both events Flores-Narvaez was listed as the victim.”

But if Jason Griffith had such disregard for his own life, would it seem surprising, in hindsight, that he would have so callously obliterated his ex-girlfriend, Debora Flores-Narvaez?

A “dance with death” was Jane Velez-Mitchell’s comment about the case during an episode of the
Dr. Phil
show that aired on August 15, 2012, titled: “Murder of a Las Vegas Showgirl.”

Four women appeared on this particular program: Jason Griffith’s mother and sister, Charlene Davis and Samantha Griffith; and Debbie’s mother and sister, Elsie Narvaez and Celeste Flores-Narvaez.

Jane Velez-Mitchell announced at the opening: “This is one of the most gruesome cover-ups I’ve ever seen.”

During the show’s opener, one could hear Charlene allege that Debbie was the aggressor. “If my son did kill her, it had to be self-defense,” she said.

“It’s a story that played out like a Hollywood movie,” said Dr. Phil in his ingratiating, soft Southern drawl. “A beautiful Las Vegas showgirl, a cryptic message, and suddenly the stunning dancer goes missing from what was to be the biggest performance of her life. And then the
worst possible outcome and a gruesome, gruesome discovery.”

Charlene Davis spoke about a black-and-white video her son had recorded that showed Debbie Flores-Narvaez threatening him. Both Charlene and her daughter, Samantha Griffith, alleged that Jason Griffith had never been violent toward a female, nor toward anyone for that matter, in any situation.

But Dr. Phil’s production team had found Jason Griffith’s ex-wife, as she now refers to herself even though they were separated, and she told a very different story. She did not want her identity revealed but had told Dr. Phil’s production team that Griffith had punched her in the face, which the host mentioned during the broadcast.

Dr. Phil asked the mother and sister, “Did Jason kill her?”

Neither denied it, but they both said it was because he felt his life was threatened.

Celeste then went on to describe the gruesome details of her sister’s slaying and dismemberment, including how Jason Griffith’s roommate, Louis Colombo, had already had to stop Griffith from choking Debbie once, earlier that night, then had to leave the apartment—and returned to find that Griffith had killed her. She described how the two men had first attempted to conceal her sister’s body
in a large tub of concrete, but when that one proved too unwieldy and started to leak, Griffith had decided to cut Debbie’s body in half and place it in two separate tubs instead, which the two roommates then hid in the home of people they knew to be out of the country. “I was so disgusted. I literally wanted to break down that door and just set ablaze the house,” Celeste said on air.

On the videotape, Debbie finally tells Jason that if he chooses to engage in battle with her, that legally he will lose.

Debbie was obviously drawing from her degree in law.

At this point, Samantha Griffith mentioned that Debbie had restraining orders.

Dr. Phil again pointed to the differences in weight between aggressor and victim, and to the time it takes to strangle someone, to which Jane Velez-Mitchell replied, “I think you’re right on the money, Dr. Phil. Do you know how long it takes to choke somebody to death? It doesn’t happen instantly. You’ve got to do this for at least a minute. So when you say self-defense, there were many moments during that minute of choking her that he could’ve backed off and said, ‘you know, I’m going to stop now.’ He didn’t. I think this is a very angry guy. He had a lot of rage at her. So I will say that.”

Jason Griffith’s mother didn’t dispute that about her son. In fact, she said her son had sought help for his issues
with anger and depression on numerous occasions but had been turned away.

Dr. Phil said, “Are you saying the system failed him?”

Charlene Davis voiced the answer that made the most sense of all: “The system failed both of them.”

But that wasn’t enough of an answer for Celeste. As she said to Charlene: “Even if your son asked for help, he had no right to kill her.”

Dr. Phil turned to Jane Velez-Mitchell and asked her, “Jane, have you heard anything here today that changes your point of view or perspective or how you’ll report on this story?”

She replied, “Well, if he was so afraid of her, why did he let her in that night? And she must’ve had a foreshadowing of this, because she sent that text to her mom saying if anything happened to me, please look to him. So these were two highly volatile people who were in a very self-destructive dance with death.”

The year 2012 was a good one for me professionally. As a news reporter, I knew that if I wanted to continue growing in my career, I needed to relocate.

It had already happened before when I moved from Florida to Texas and then Nevada. My next move had to be Los Angeles, California.

For the Spanish TV market, Los Angeles is numero uno. I was very happy anchoring the late news in Vegas, but when the opportunity came along to be part of a new national network in California, I had to jump at it.

During this time, Debora’s murder trial was still being postponed. The family, Diana, and I were impatiently waiting for it.

Every time Jason Griffith had a calendar call known as a “status hearing” about the trial, our hopes were to have a final date. It ended up happening two years after I moved to Los Angeles.

Fortunately for us, our local affiliate station covered the trial, and I kept in touch with my reporter colleagues, who were always so open to sharing the inside information with us. The day the trial started, I received a lot of phone calls from people aware of my continuing interest in the case.

By 2013, we were still waiting for a trial, but the news of Debbie’s death had faded away. Nobody was covering the case anymore. Sadly, it had become another murder statistic in Sin City. The news reporters didn’t even cover every time Jason had a calendar call for his trial. After all, it was only more of the “same old same old.” Even the postponements were old news; the
Las Vegas World News
ran the headline: “Court records now indicate that the trial has been postponed. It is the SIXTH postponement.”

On six instances, a trial date had been set for Jason “Blu” Griffith, charged with murder in the death of his former girlfriend, Debora Flores-Narvaez.

There were many factors that contributed to the multiple postponements. Mind you, it caused a lot of distress for the family, having to hear the word “postponed” over and over again. To the justice system, it was merely a case number; to the Flores-Narvaez family, it was their daughter, their sister, their dear Debbie.

The first delay came because the case had been assigned to district judge Donald Mosley, who retired in early 2012. The case was reassigned to district judge Kathleen Delaney.

Various other delays were due to problems obtaining documents. A lot of the documents the public defenders presented as evidence during the trial came from Maryland, where Debbie lived prior to her move to Las Vegas. The defense attorney later said that what made it more difficult to get them was the power of a subpoena, which only works within the state. The defense wanted to have with them the previous restraining orders some of her ex-boyfriends had imposed on Debora, including a 2005 police report from one of Debbie’s ex-boyfriends, who was actually a police officer himself in Maryland. The delay in obtaining the documents caused the trial to be postponed more than once.