7 Central; 101

Tonight, on 7:00 central. I call them "anarchists" 'cause that's the best [way] to describe them. No rules, no laws. nothing. 'Cause he did, I mean he -I mean, he terrified me. I was terrified. For the- for the- all the period of time I lived with him, I was really really terrified. [camera clicks] Good evening. I'm Dave Iverson welcome to this first edition of 7:00 Central. Each week Each week on this new documentary series, we'll take a look at a single topic from as many different angles as time permits. We begin our series tonight by going back to a single event that took place here, a quiet, Madison street called Nova Way. It's as suburban a setting as one could possibly imagine. But last summer, a man named Vincent Lee Mott

shattered the illusion of safety in this quiet neighborhood. He came here for one purpose: to kill his girlfriend, who lived just around the corner. Within the space of minutes, five people lay injured and Vincent Mott was dead. Perhaps because it happened here, the events seem more startling than it really was. The truth is, suburban serenity not withstanding, domestic violence is commonplace. And there's not always a lot the law can do to prevent it. In fact in this case, the criminal justice system worked the way it was supposed to. It just couldn't stop Vincent Lee Mott. As producer Kara Larson shows what happened here on Nova Way not only shattered the quiet of the suburban street, It also shattered an illusion that many of us share. The illusion of safety. And a lot of things did go wrong. I mean, there's a lot of big loopholes that he fell

through. Which- He shouldn't have. Judge's orders, commissioner's orders, uh, bail conditions, uh, and the like, Are no guarantee against the Vincent Lee Motts of the world. I don't think there's anything that we can do. That can ultimately protect us if someone's really bound and determined that they're going to do us harm. On June 4th, 1989, a man named Vincent Lee Mott tried to kill his ex-girlfriend. It was his last violent act. Part of a pattern of violence, one pieced together later by police, and reporters. Vincent Mott apparently told someone he was looking for his former girlfriend and her mother. Madison

police got a warning call at about the same time shots were reported here on Nova Way. Police say Mott drove up and found Ellen Kell and her mother unloading groceries. And I was outside helping- I was gonna- just about to help bring groceries in. And Vince pulled up and stopped the car, got out grabbed a- the shotgun he had in the backseat and started shooting. [distant shriek] All in a matter of a minute. All in the matter of a minute. Kell's mother was hit by a ricochet as she ran for the house. Police say Mott kept firing as he chased Kell around the back. Stray shots injured three people as they watched from the screen door. Among them, a 15 year old girl, shot in the abdomen and her grandfather, who was hit in the arm. Mott found Ellen Kell trying to hide under a pickup truck, and there, slashed her repeatedly with a hunting knife. She would later be in surgery for over seven hours. If it weren't for the helicopter ride, two emergency fire officials say Kell would have died. Police

confirm this wasn't the first time Mott had attacked her. In the end, it was Vincent Lee Mott who died when a homemade pipe bomb went off in his hand. Whether deliberate or by accident, the fact that the attacker died instead of his target was one of the only deviations in the usual pattern of domestic abuse, a pattern of escalating violence. He had said to me several times, "You know, the reason why I'm so mean to you is to put fear into you so that you'll listen to me." And I couldn't imagine. ya know. 'Cause he did. I mean, he terrified me. I was terrified. For the- for the- all the period of time I lived with him, I was really terrified. Ellen Kell and Vincent Mott had lived together for almost three years. [crosstalk] In January, they had a son, Reese. And with the baby, Kell says, things went from bad to worse. [music] You really begin to think that that's- that's unacceptable because I

can defend myself, and he can't, and I can't spend all my time worrying about myself and the baby and then living a normal life. Vincent Mott was an interstate truck driver and an ex-Marine. His background in childhood problems as does Kell's. They met at a school for troubled youth. Juvenile records, however, are confidential and closed at age 18. So as an adult, age 25, Mott's record was clean. He managed to stay out of trouble. He- he managed to go undetected. No one called the police when there was- there were loud arguments. Someone should have. That could have helped. Undetected and ignored, traditionally, domestic abuse is considered a private problem and only in extreme cases does the law reach behind closed doors to intervene. That attitude still prevails today. [music] I think it's real easy when something like this happens. It makes the front page of the

newspaper because it ends in some fairly extreme violence, what most people would appraise as extreme violence. To think of this as something that's fairly unusual and the kinds of things that- that happened in the Mott case, um, are fairly typical, in that- there- there were violent episodes that occurred prior to that. [music] I would say it's probably a- classic domestic abuse situation. An average, [Interviewee]: type call the way it came in originally. [Interviewer]: The way it came in- [Interviewee]: The way it was dispatched to me as in an- a domestic abuse situation. Boyfriend/girlfriend call. Two months before, on April 2nd,

This average call brought police to the town of Windsor and the home of Vincent Mott and Ellen Kell. According to the report, Mott had left and the house was in disarray. Kell said Mott had become violent, that she wanted to move out that the week before Mott had tried to strangle her. [music] [Kell] And that was the first time he'd ever been- not violent, but that was the first time he had ever made an attempt to kill me. Or that I ever gave the impression that he- well. [Kell]: Would of been capable of it. [Interviewer]: What do you think brought it on? [Kell]: The baby. [Interviewer]: The baby. [Kell]: The baby. [Interviewer]: He was jealous? [Kell]:He was a very jealous. [Guest] A- a person like Mr. Mott I think fits a profile of someone who really, um, is very possessive. Who really is, um, obsessive in his jealousy. What's really ironic is that out of that fear of loss, which is what I define

jealousy as being, men will do the very things that will drive the person that they care about away. [Kell] I had planned on moving out because I had wanted to go back to school so I had planned on eventually [Kell]: Moving out and living here and-. [Narrator]:Ellen Kell moved out the evening of April 2nd, back to her mother's home near Nova Way. [Kell] And when I got home, I thought, "Great, this is my chance to get rid of him. To, you know, break up with him, and break up with him, kind of, I thought, in a, you know, a way that I knew wouldn't hurt him because I knew how sensitive he was. By a twist of timing, however, this private violence was now a public crime. The day before, a new law took effect in Wisconsin, a law that changed the legal attitude toward domestic violence. If I'm walking down the street and somebody comes up to me and gives me a black eye the police would be very happy to arrest that person. But when the same action, the same criminal action, happened in the home,

there is an entirely different attitude about it. And we're saying a criminal act is a criminal act regardless of the relationship between the two people, where it occurs, or other circumstances. It gives a real- it gives a very clear signal to whoever is perpetrating the violence- that violence is not an acceptable method of resolving conflict. Counseling does not work. Advice does not work. Applying the force of the criminal justice system has an impact on making it much less likely that the person will repeat the criminal act. [music] Late on the night of April 2nd, Vincent Mott became one of the first people taken into custody under the mandatory arrest law. [Guest] No, he definitely was not a willing person, he definitely was doing everything he could, to not only avoid us, but

avoid being arrested. What we're looking at is a whole different relationship that's more preventive in the nature that says the first time you do something that's a violation of the law, you will be arrested. And we don't want to wait until the woman is injured or dead before the police or- eh-other parts of the criminal justice system take some action. Dennis J. Howery. Violation of Domestic Domestic Abuse injunction. Dane County intake court on a Tuesday morning, when a weekend's worth the arrests are first heard by the court commissioner. For each, bail is set or denied, and the next court date is scheduled. [Commissioner]: Do you understand that. [Howery]: Yes, sir. [Commissioner]: Any questions about it? [Howery]: No, sir. On April 4th, the court heard the charges against Vincent Mott. As a first offender with a job and a local address, Mott did not appear to be dangerous.

He was given a June hearing date and released on signature bond. The thing that people have to keep in mind is that the purpose of bail is to assure a person's appearance in court. Ahh- it goes along with the with- ah, with the, you know the- the principle in the Constitution that you're innocent until you're proven guilty. For Mott, bail did include some conditions- conditions that specified he could not threaten or harm Ellen Kell. [Guest] I'll do the following. I'll order as a condition of the $500 signature bond that the defendant not threaten or direct any physical acts of violence against... Bail conditions act as a warning and order from the court that will result in an additional criminal charge if violated. You hope it doesn't happen. Ahh- but there really isn't an alternative you can't just say, "We're going to lock up everybody who has threatened someone or lock up everybody who- who might have the potential to- ahh- to flip out." You just can't do it.

[Narrator] Vincent Mott was released that morning. That afternoon, he was at the Kell's house. Ellen Kell called the police. The officer told Mott to leave. The same thing happened the next day, when he showed up again, and again the police told him to leave. [Kell] By two weeks, I was so sick of him calling, he would call. We told the police that, um, he was calling and bothering us and they said, "Well, write down how many times he called, and when he goes to court, we'll take it all into consideration and we'll do something." [fast-paced music] [Narrator] Mott continued to return, sometimes parking outside the house, watching. In all, the police would be called to the Kell's home five times before the final shooting spree.

[Guest] It's sort of like on the day they- they taught three plus five in math class you were sick. And that's the only day they taught it- and so guess what? You grew up not knowing how to multiply three times five. Well, in some respects, I think a lot of the men that I work with are handicapped in that regard as well. When it comes to anger, they're only taught one way to deal with it, and that is to be abusive either emotionally or physically. [Kell] I just could not believe that he was up on my roof at my window cutting out the screen, getting ready to slit his wrists. I just was- "What are you doing?" So I said to my mom [laughs], "Mother don't freak out, Vince is on my roof. He's gonna slit his wrists. We need to call the police." [Narrator] On May 2nd, the police responded to an attempted suicide on the Kell's roof Vincent Mott had cut his wrists and threatened to cut his own throat.

[Guest] People who are obsessive, people who won't let go of the woman. People who believe she's his piece of property. Those- those are the abusers who, um, go to those extraordinary limits. [Narrator] Mott had left a sympathy card in the Kell mailbox, addressed to Ellen Kell and family blaming them for his suicide. [Kell]: And I think that if I wouldn't have called the police, he would have. [Interviewer]: To make you feel sorry, [Interviewer]: feel bad about what you did? [Kell]: feel bad for moving out, make me feel guilty, like I'm a horrible person. [Guest] And that's- that's the real hard part, because when he finally starts talking to her, um, she starts to feel guilt, he makes her feel guilt and tells her how sorry he is. Um, how you know she just is such a special person. You know, she's the only person in the world who could love a guy like him like [laughs] what an honor. [attorney speaking in background] [Narrator] Vincent Mott was brought to court the next day, May 3rd. He said his actions were

only an attempt to gain Ellen Kell's attention. A skeptical court ordered a mental health officer to interview Mott that afternoon and questioned if this case was falling through the cracks in the system. [Judge] Also, I'm going to order that the defendant have absolutely no contact with the alleged victim in this case. [Narrator] The charges this time were criminal damage and bail jumping, stemming from the violation of his prior order not to threaten the safety of Ellen Kell. Bail was set at $500, signature bond, along with a bail condition of no contact. [Judge] And in terms of no contact with the victim, that means no contact at all. Not in person, not by phone, not by mail. [Mott]: Right. Nothing. [Narrator]: The no contact condition reads like a restraining order, which is a civil, rather than criminal action. But the penalties for violating either are meant to ward off future attacks. Though whether a court order can keep a person safe is questionable. [Guest] It's a piece of paper. I mean, I usually tell them

that I- I normally expect this abuser to try and violate it at least once. [Guest 2] For many people, I think that, uh, restraining orders and bail conditions work fine. For some people, um, they won't work. The hard part is figuring out which group a particular defendant on a particular day belongs to. The day after being released, Mott returned to the Kells, and was met by a locked door. [rumbling sound effect] He'd kicked in the front door, ahh- which was violent, but hadn't directed any violence towards any person. And when the police arrived, he was simply holding, ahh- his son. [Narrator] The arresting officer asked Mott if he knew this action violated his bail conditions. Mott said yes, but felt Ellen Kell was his family. [Judge speaking] [Guest] In the May 5th incident,

that was when the bells started to go off that he just was not going to listen. [Narrator] Cash bail was set on May 5th. Mott was able to pay the $500 and gain his release. Warning bells were not enough to legally hold Vincent Lee Mott. [Guest] The normal case of this type doesn't follow that sort of progression, we don't see that much repeat contact in- in such a short period of time. [music] [Narrator] All a battered woman wants, say the experts, is for the violence to stop. How doesn't really matter. Ellen Kell called the police. She moved out. And, she tried to make a deal with Mott- with one condition being a guarantee of safety for their son. [Interviewee]: If you go get counseling I won't have you arrested? Is that the other one? [Kell] Yeah, because I never really wanted him to be arrested and- and ang- you know, so angry that he hated me and- and hated Reese because Reese was with me and I always kinda wanted it to be

somewhat, you know, not so crazy. Somewhere in between. [Narrator] On May 10th, the DA's office also tried to make a deal at a pretrial conference. The DA would drop several charges and in exchange, Mott would serve two years' probation, 10 days in jail, and attend counseling. [Guest] Had he gone through all those- all those things, hopefully in the long run, society would have been protected. From Vincent Lee Mott. [Interviewer]: But that's a long run. [Guest] True. [Narrator] Vincent Mott had one condition to any deal: that Ellen Kell returned to him. On that, he was insistent. [Phone rings] Until June 2nd, 2nd, two days before the shooting spree, when Mott called one last time

and promised to get help. [Kell] And so when he had called me that Friday, he sounded real rational, and he sounded real- you know, like, "I'll cooperate, I'll do what you want me to do, and that'll be that." And I thought, "OK, he's finally coming around, maybe he's serious." [Narrator] Ellen Kell met Mott at a public shopping mall, where Mott seemed conciliatory. He played with his son in what appeared for a brief moment to be a sudden change of pattern. [Interviewer]: Did you think maybe the harassment had come to an end? [Kell]: I thought so. I thought he was- was serious about getting some kind of treatment and then thinking that maybe he had this all planned and that he wanted to see Reese and make himself feel better about killing, trying to kill us. If he sees the son before he does this. I don't know. [Guest] Battered women when they leave the relationship are at the greatest risk in

their life. Um, that is the time that their abuser, He's going to feel the most insecure. He's going to try everything he can to hold her down and if that means that he's gotta kill her just to make sure that she doesn't go and be with some other guy, then he just might do that. [Guest] And his mother- when he called his mom and said, "I'm gonna go kill Mrs. Kell and Ellen and I won't hurt Reese, but then I'm gonna have a shoot out with the police and I'm going to kill myself." [Narrator] Moments before the shooting spree, Vincent Lee Mott called his mother from a roadside phone. She called police, but like other signs this warning came too late to prevent his final act. [Guest 2] I said it before and I'll say it again, there are some people who- if they don't want to listen,

they aren't going to. [Narrator] Vincent Mott was two days away from his first court date. He had escalated through the stages of violence faster than most. Faster than the legal system could catch him. His end also came quickly. [fast-paced music] [Kell] I thought he'd been capable of doing it from the day he strangled me. [Guest 2] There are situations that the criminal justice justice system can't solve. [Kell] It took about four minutes for the whole thing to happen. From the point that he drove up, to the point where he blew up. If he was, um, hanging

around here, you know, there should have been a lot done that wasn't and it's real upsetting to find out that- that you can't do anything about it. That you can give him half a story and the other half-half has to hang in the air until something like this happens. [Narrator] Found in Vincent Motts car by the police was a letter he wrote to Ellen Kell. The woman Mott claimed to love and tried to kill. The new law was designed to prevent violence and has proven effective, but in this case, as in other extreme acts, the law creates an illusion of safety. [Guest] There's not a law in the world that's going to stop somebody from hurting you if they're- if they're really going to do it. For every Mr. Mott, uhhh and-and thankfully there are very few of Mr. Motts, uhh, but for every Mr. Mott there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have come through the system under the exact same circumstances of Mr. Mott, who have not gone out and killed someone. [Guest] I think there's a lot of public education, a lot of prevention that has to be be done.

A lot of work with children. A lot of work with the women who are victims and a lot of work with men who batter. [Narrator] Behind the headlines of June 4th lies a story that belongs to many other women and to other men. The extreme ending, however, creates its own illusion. [Guest] It obscures the fact that there's a lot of slapping and pushing and hitting by men toward women that goes on that never gets reported. Um, and people are only then start to identify themselves as being victimized when something as severe as the Mott case, um, hits the media. [woman speaking] [Narrator] Three weeks after Vincent Mott's death, the Nova way neighborhood organized to plant a tree on their street. [Guest]: And uh, just take this time to do something positive for the neighborhood. This was not a memorial, but a sign of recovery and new growth,

and a new understanding that illusions of safety can be suddenly shattered. And that our system of law has its limitations. [Guest] But it does work for some people. And every time it works on somebody, that's one less battered woman. It's a lot less hospital costs. And it's another generation of children growing up violence free who otherwise were