EVIDENCE
Case #2006-1247 Item #017-2017
Evidence Description: Digital video file recovered from Sterling residence
Duration: 3:47:22 (excerpted segments below)
Date Recorded: July 27-28, 2017
[TIMECODE: 00:43:17]
[VIDEO: Industrial space, poor lighting. JACKSON REED visible in frame, flex-cuffed to metal chair, duct tape over mouth. CRYSTAL BARNETT/IRINA STERLING paces, holding wrench]
Crystal: I don’t see why you’re being so shifty. You don’t have to tell me her name [Sits on crate, eye level with Jackson] I just wanna know why you went on a date with that girl on the TikTok. She didn’t look like all that to me.
[Jackson makes muffled sounds through tape]
Crystal: Oh right. [Rips tape off] Go ahead. Tell me about little miss mixy-mix.
Jackson: [Hoarse] Tell me what happened to Charlie first.
Crystal: [Laughs] What the… who gives a shit about that loser? Are you seriously trying to make me believe you’re doing all this to avenge him? Like you were besties? Please…
Jackson: You want to talk, let’s talk. But it goes both ways.
[TIMECODE: 00:45:33]
Crystal: Fine. You want to know about Charlie? [Adjusts camera angle] Let me tell you how easy it was.
[She sits back, conversational]
Crystal: I created a sock puppet account with a picture of another working girl. I built her for months—social media, emails, the works. Fed Charlie exactly what he wanted to hear. Details about Dubai, client lists, just enough truth to make the lies taste real.
Jackson: He was trying to help people.
Crystal: He was trying to destroy women who wouldn’t fuck him. But I’ll continue.
[TIMECODE: 00:48:22]
Crystal: So then, when he was supposed to meet Phoenix, I showed up at the Starbucks AS MYSELF. Watched him panic, text “Phoenix” to abort. Then over text, I redirected him to an abandoned storage facility. “Quick, I have evidence hidden there!”
[She stands, animated]
Crystal: His adrenaline was so high, he never questioned why Phoenix was already there. Different wig, different walk—you’d be amazed how blind men are when they’re excited. I bum rushed him just like I did you—[makes taser sound]—military grade, right to the nerve cluster.
Jackson: Where’s his body?
Crystal: [Grins] All the bloodhounds in Nevada won’t find him. Trust me on that.
[TIMECODE: 00:52:41]
Jackson: And Zack? What was his crime?
Crystal: [Face falls] I liked Zack. He was funny. But he had a contact at Columbia admissions. Got too close to Crystal Barnett. Had to go.
Jackson: You killed him because he was good at his job.
Crystal: His job was putting on moisturizer and lisping his way through a product review for fuck’s sake! I didn’t do anything to him and he went after me because I had a course? No, I’m so sorry. I thought he was different! When he first reached out for comment, I tried to get him to back off. I told him I’d been an escort, that I was still in danger from my traffickers. Do you know he had the fucking nerve to sit there and litigate with me? Like I was lying?
Jackson: You WERE lying.
[Crystal’s face contorts. She swings the wrench, catching Jackson’s shoulder. He grunts but maintains eye contact]
Crystal: SHUT UP REED! SHUT THE FUCK UP! I wanted to be nice to him, do you hear me? I wanted everything to be fine, but he just couldn’t stop. Gay men are still men I guess.
It’s hard to pretend when you get older, that men like you. That they think you’re pretty or that they even think you’re a person. I tell you after being in the business, it gets harder to turn your brain off and rest in the pleasant fiction of it. All men end up being obstacles to happiness. ALL of you!
Jackson: You don’t like obstacles. Especially Black women who stand up to you.
Crystal: [Tenses, looks at camera] What?
[TIMECODE: 00:54:15]
Jackson: That MP in Lejeune. Washington? Walsh? The Black girl you fought at the suicide scene. You couldn’t handle her not backing down.
Crystal: [Agitated, stands] You don’t know shit about that.
Jackson: I read the Page 11. You always had problems with Black women who wouldn’t defer to you. Poor white trash hates when middle-class Black girls won’t play along.
[TIMECODE: 00:56:33]
Crystal: [Breathing hard] You want to hear about middle-class Black girls? Fine. They’ve never been in a real fight. They have their good school, good neighborhood, and a whole community of white people terrified of offending them. You can’t tell the Black girl she looks like shit. What are you, racist? Can’t call her mean or stupid. What are you, racist? And they get drunk on that power. They lean into that. Swing their neck around when they talk, step close and act physically intimidating. Pretending they’re ghetto, or have even been to one.
[She paces, agitated]
Crystal: But then they join the military and meet someone like me. Poor. White. Trash. And it’s hilarious watching those bitches glitch out when they realize this skinny white bitch ain’t scared. And unlike her, I’ve actually been in fights. Lots of em. I come back after a full-fat man-punch, I got no problem righting myself after one of the black girl’s skippidty paps. Even if she is one of the fat ones who looks grown at the age of nine. Doesn’t matter. I’ll whoop her ass.
The key is to make sure no other black girls are around. Cuz they’ll wolf pack you even if they don’t know you. Don’t know what you’re fighting about. And they don’t care. Black girl fighting white girl? They’re on black girl’s side. Always. Lesson there.
Jackson: You about that white power life?
Crystal: Just the power part. You’re just like those bitches. Used to people backing down. That’s why you’re tied to a chair. That’s why a big strong man like you is about to get gutted by the fat girl from Memphis.
Jackson: [Looking at her hand] You’re gonna gut me with a pen?
Crystal: It’s a turn of phrase, for fuck’s sake! All that Twitter making you autistic?
[TIMECODE: 01:03:44]
[Long silence. Crystal sits, studying Jackson]
Crystal: You know what? Since we’re sharing. Your sister Victoria came to my party in LA last month.
Jackson: [Wary] I know. I talked to her while she was there. I told her to leave.
Crystal: [Smiles slowly] Sweet girl. So eager to please. And so hot too.
Jackson: Don’t.
Crystal: We had champagne on my balcony. She told me how embarrassed she was of you. How she thought you were just like your mom. I held her while she cried.
Jackson: Crystal—
Crystal: And then I fucked her.
[TIMECODE: 01:05:17]
[Jackson’s face goes still]
Crystal: Right there on my California king. She was so grateful for the attention. Kept saying she’d never been with a woman before but I made her feel “seen.”
Jackson: [After a pause] Well. She always did manage go home with the hottest piece of ass at the party. It’s kind of her brand.
Crystal: [Blinks, surprised] That’s it? No rage? No threats?
Jackson: Rage over what? Sissy makes her own choices. Bad ones, apparently, but her own. You might be used to men trying to control you, but I don’t roll that way. Weird you never picked up on that.
[TIMECODE: 01:07:22]
[Crystal stares at him, then laughs]
Crystal: You’re something else, Reed.
[She pulls a protein bar from her pocket, unwraps it]
Crystal: Open up. Need to keep your strength up.
[She feeds him small bites, almost tender]
Crystal: We’ve got so much more to discuss.
[TIMECODE: 01:08:45 - END OF EXCERPT]
Note: Full video file contains 3+ hours of additional content including multiple assault segments and extended psychological manipulation. Transcript limited to relevant exchanges per court order.
Agh! So good!