- Female narrator: An aspiring rapper
Gives his all to achieve his dream.
- He had already accomplished a whole lot,
Performing and opening up for, you know, ludacris.
- Narrator: But the music stops when shots ring out.
- She's hard to understand.
She is screaming.
- He is dead on the floor with gunshot wounds.
- That's when I was like, this can't be real.
- Narrator: The gruesome crime scene
Challenges investigators to question
Every detail before them.
- It was a dangerous crowd that he ran with.
- We don't have enough evidence at this point to tell the story.
Let's keep going.
You never know what's gonna turn up and help us out.
- Narrator: And when the curtain finally closes
On this investigation,
A calculated killer will step into the spotlight.
- I told them that they need to find his cell phone.
If he was doing anything,
It was recorded on that cell phone.
- I kept thinking this is a movie.
But it was real. It was horrific.
It-it was horrible.
- This is manipulative behavior of a murderer.
- I've seen a lot of evil in my career,
But I've never seen evil document itself like that.
- I said, bro, you dancing with the devil.
- ♪
- Narrator: December 29th, 2017.
Its 10:50 pm in clayton county, georgia
As a call breaks the silence of the 911 dispatch center.
- There was a 911 call that was placed by a neighbor.
Ciera harp had knocked on, uh, her neighbor's door
Kinda frantically. She was holding her
Three-year-old daughter, angel. The neighbor can tell
Number one, that she's been stabbed multiple times,
Number 2, that she's been stabbed seriously.
- Narrator: When police arrive,
They quickly encounter the victim,
28-year-old ciera harp.
- She was hysterical.
No one could understand what she was saying.
And she was bleeding heavily.
- Narrator: Her neighbor who called 911
Tells police that ciera lives in a nearby apartment
With her child's father, rahim grant.
- The neighbor had kind of gotten
A little bit of information
About that there had been a domestic.
But she had no idea where rahim was.
And so, the neighbor actually locked the door behind them
Because she was concerned that rahim was going to
Come after ciera in some way, shape, or form.
- Narrator: Officers cautiously make their way
To ciera's apartment to find rahim.
- They were able to, um, walk through the front door.
They made a turn, to the left.
And that's where they were first confronted with rahim's body.
- Most of the bottom of his body was in the bathroom
And then the top portion of his body
Was lying face down in the bedroom.
- Officers were able to observe at least three bullet wounds.
Two on his back and one in his head.
- Police realized pretty quickly
That- that he was not alive when they got there.
- Narrator: With an apparent homicide
And an injured victim on their hands,
First responders quickly call detectives to the scene.
- In the bathroom-bedroom area, they see that the mirror
Had been pierced by a bullet,
Uh, there were perforations in the wall.
- There was a lot of blood on the wall.
They found seven shell casings.
They found a few around his body
And then one was actually on the bed.
- Narrator: Detectives find a driver's license
And are able to confirm that the deceased is rahim grant.
- The key piece of evidence in any investigation,
Is victimology.
And it's what brought the victim into this circumstance.
Trying to learn, you know, is there some type of history
For all the parties that we have involved?
Who are the people that were in this location?
- The victim always has something to say
Even after they're in the grave.
- Narrator: Born in fayetteville, georgia,
On March 30th, 1989,
Rahim grant seemed destined for the spotlight.
- Rahim was one of a kind. He's been into entertainment
Ever since he was like three and a half years old.
He um, started doing the drums,
And then he went from there on the microphone.
He was on showtime at the apollo at age seven.
He wanted to be the educational rapper.
We went into all types of schools,
All type of events that was helping to teach
To think first before you act.
- Then he became a teenager, and he was like,
"you know what, I think I want to change from being
The educational rapper to being a gangster rapper."
But he didn't want to just rap.
He wanted to also do the part that he thought made the money,
Which was engineering and being able to produce.
- He was almost a savant, if you will, as far as
In the music industry, as far as how he knew the theory of it
And how to mix music for other artists.
- Narrator: By the age of 26,
Rahim was well on his way to establishing his rap career
Under the name "red beezy."
- He had already accomplished a whole lot, you know,
Performing and opening up for, you know, ludacris.
Opening up for, uh, big artists as far as, you know,
When we did the concert at tuskegee
Master p and everybody, goodie mob,
All of them, they knew him.
- Narrator: In 2013, the up-and-coming musician
Had a fateful encounter with a fan named ciera harp.
- She went up like she wanted an autograph.
She was like, "red beezy, not only thank you
For the autograph but, listen, can I, um, ask you for a job?"
And he was like, "what you do?"
"and she was like, well, we do, like, promotion in the clubs."
And she said, "I would like to help promote your next event."
- Ciera thought this was a pathway to the future.
- He was like, "well, ok, I'll give you, um,
I'll give you a shot." and that's how
It got started with her with him.
- Narrator: But 2 months later,
Rahim's working relationship with ciera took a turn.
- She told me she was pregnant.
And I said, "oh, you are? Do you know the baby father?"
And she was like, "yeah, rahim is my baby father."
And I looked at her, I was like what?
- Narrator: On November 20th, 2014,
Rahim and ciera welcomed a baby girl named angel grant.
- He loved his daughter and when he got his daughter,
He became the greatest dad and he changed.
His whole world changed.
- It starts to mature him a little bit.
He has a baby girl, and he wants the best for her.
- Narrator: Though he loved being a father,
Rahim wasn't ready to settle down and start a family.
- He said that ciera, her mama,
She's only the baby mom.
- Ciera didn't think they were in a traditional
Monogamous relationship, and I believe that
She was okay with that.
- When a child is born out of wedlock,
Meaning the parents aren't married,
And the child has not been legitimated by the father,
The state does not recognize him to be the father of that child.
He literally had zero rights to his child.
So, he was basically at the mercy of ciera
To be able to see his daughter.
- Narrator: Even without legal custody of his daughter,
Rahim stepped up and did everything he could
To smoothly co-parent with ciera.
- Ciera was living with mr. Grant.
Their status was not in a relationship at that time.
The understanding was that they were going to co-parent,
And he allowed her to live there.
- I saw rahim on a regular basis with his daughter
Out in the community. They'd be riding on her little,
Her little tricycle. I would see a lot of him.
Pool parties, he'd come with the baby.
You could tell she was very happy.
- He had one eye on his career getting as high as he could,
As popular as he could in the rap game.
But he had another eye on her.
He wanted to make sure that whatever she needed,
He was going to provide for her.
And that's why he was so energized
And so ambitious about his career.
- Narrator: By December 2017,
Rahim was ready to embark on his first national tour.
- This tour was gonna be city to city to city.
We was gonna be gone for a year.
I was excited for him and um, and nervous at the same time
Because I know a lot of times
Be so much people hating each other.
- Rahim wanted this gangster personality
And that's a dangerous crowd that he ran with.
He chose that persona. He chose that way of life.
- He would always tell me, "mom, um, I'm you know,
I'm not gonna live to get twenty-five."
He would always tell me that. And I'm like,
"will you stop saying that?" and he would be like,
"seriously, I'm for real."
- Narrator: Now, as detectives stand
Over the body of 28-year-old, rahim grant,
It seems his premonition has come true.
- Police arrive to rahim's apartment and found him dead.
- Narrator: Detectives immediately begin
Processing the scene.
- The neighbor had suspected that there had been
A domestic incident between the two of them.
Now, they find rahim dead.
- Narrator: While investigators secure the scene,
Another theory of how rahim may have died
Begins circulating through the neighborhood.
- There was some allegations that rahim
Was involved in gangs, and he was selling drugs
And that maybe somebody came in and shot him.
- You never want to assume anything about
A victim or a defendant.
Just because someone has a persona,
Looks a certain way, has certain tattoos,
Is affiliated with any other people,
You never assume anything about them.
- Police were befuddled.
They were trying to figure it all out.
And at that point, ciera wasn't helping.
- She was fighting with the medical techs.
She was combative, she did not want to be dealt with.
She was intoxicated.
- Her blood-alcohol content
Is approximately three times the legal limit.
She. Was. Drunk.
- Narrator: Ciera is also severely injured.
- Ciera has been stabbed in her leg's multiple times.
The largest stab wounds was right above one of her tattoos.
- There was blood just pouring from her leg.
Because she was wounded,
Paramedics had to take her to the hospital.
- She's whisked away to surgery because they're concerned
That she may lose too much blood and lose her life.
- Her daughter was taken into dfcs custody
And then turned over to ciera harp's mother.
- Narrator: Unable to speak with either rahim or ciera,
Investigators are left with more questions than answers.
- We kind of started putting the pieces together
From friends at the apartment.
It was difficult to see the truth about what happened.
- Narrator: Coming up:
The crime scene tells a troubling story.
- There were shell casings.
There was a lot of blood on the wall.
- They told me he was the aggressor,
And she was the victim.
- She wasn't going to stand up for her son
If he had done the things that she alleged.
She wanted to know the truth.
- ♪
- Narrator: Detectives in clayton county, georgia
Are investigating the death of 28-year-old rapper, rahim grant.
Aside from ciera harp, the only potential eyewitness
Is rahim and ciera's 3-year-old daughter.
- Police officers, unless we're specifically trained,
We don't interview children under a certain age,
Because children are easily led.
I could ask a question and I could definitely get
An answer I want from a child, more so than an adult.
- Narrator: Police execute search warrants
On both rahim's apartment and the apartment of
His neighbor who called 911,
Where they make an important discovery.
- That's where police found the gun that was used,
The .380 to kill rahim.
- She said ciera actually had the gun in her hand
In the neighbor's apartment.
- It is my understanding that the gun
Is registered to another family member of rahim's.
The neighbor believed that there has been some sort of
Horrifying domestic where both people got injured,
And one died.
- Narrator: Authorities collect the weapon as evidence,
Along with a cell phone left behind.
- It'll go in a bag,
And it'll go in a secure evidence room locker.
And it'll be at some point later in the investigation
That they'll obtain a search warrant
To try to get into that phone
If every other avenue of investigation fails.
- Narrator: After bagging the phone,
Investigators turn their attention to the victim.
- Police are trying to figure out exactly what happened,
And they look over and they notice a knife.
- It is a serrated knife that is a couple inches long
And it has a handle that's kind of in the shape of a short t,
That you can put between your fingers right here
So you can kind of punch and stab someone at the same time.
- Narrator: The weapons left behind,
Seem to confirm the story ciera had told her neighbor
About a domestic assault between ciera and rahim.
- Our photographer went to the hospital
To take photographs of ciera's injuries.
- These were bad wounds.
They were not superficial.
- It looks like an open and shut case of self-defense.
They see that ciera has stab wounds.
And they see rahim dead on the floor with gunshot wounds.
They were working under the assumption very quickly
That this was a self-defense type of homicide.
- Narrator: Authorities reach out
To rahim's friends and family
To get a better idea of his background.
- I was like, you know, "this can't be real.
"what's happening? Who shot him?
Why is he dead?"
I couldn't believe it. It was like I was
In another world, a out-of-body experience
Where you didn't know how to think
And why are they playing this joke on you.
And I asked, "who was the person that had killed my son?"
They told me thought it was ciera.
They told me he was the aggressor,
And she was the victim.
- Narrator: According to geraldine grant,
Her son had a troubled relationship with ciera harp.
- Geraldine told me that ciera was obsessed
With rahim's success.
Ciera was looking to ride rahim's coattails
As he was becoming a more and more sought-after performer.
Rahim didn't want her to ride his coattails
Or didn't want any woman to ride his coattails at this point.
- I told her the only reason that you are here
Is because you are the baby mom.
But you are not rahim girlfriend. She knew that.
- Narrator: Despite the tension between rahim and ciera,
Geraldine says she simply cannot believe
That her son had been violent.
- When rahim gets angry, he really don't talk.
He'll say, you know, "I'm not even going there with you."
I have never seen him hit a girl.
I have never seen--that's what I kept telling them. Never.
- Geraldine was very clear to me and that's why she wanted
This investigation done the best that it could possibly be done,
Because she wasn't going to stand up for her son
If he had done the things that were alleged.
She wanted to know the truth
More than anything else in this world.
- Narrator: But the only person
Who can give a statement about what happened
Is still unable to talk to authorities.
- Ciera is unconscious in the hospital.
She was sedated, I don't think she spoke to police for days.
- Narrator: On January 2nd, 4 days after the murder,
The georgia bureau of investigation
Conducts an autopsy on rahim grant.
- Rahim had been shot in his upper back, his lower back,
Twice in one arm, twice in the other arm,
And once in the head.
- She's a tiny girl. I wouldn't classify anything
As overkill in a self-defense scenario.
- Narrator: But one detail concerns investigators.
- Assuming that this was a self-defense type of homicide,
It doesn't explain how he got the bullet wound
At the top of his head.
- Was there any point in time during this occurrence
That that danger was eliminated without having to take a life?
You can't tell me that there wasn't a point in time
Where he wasn't, to the point, where she could have left
That apartment building without having to take his life.
- Narrator: The autopsy also reveals
That rahim suffered from superficial stab wounds.
- There was already injuries, uh, that-that you could document
Before shots were fired.
- Rahim had cuts to his forehead.
And he also had some cuts to the back of his shoulder.
They appeared to be two parallel lines,
Two small parallel lines. And if you match that up
To the autopsy photos, it was clear that,
That punch knife was very, very likely
To the be the object that caused those injuries to rahim.
- Police want to know how did he get the stab wounds?
"why was he stabbed?" ciera never mentioned
That she was the one doing the stabbing.
- Domestic violence has become that kind of way in america
Where, you know, we almost assume that
The male is the aggressor, and the female is the victim.
- Rahim had been shot six days prior.
At this point, police need to get ciera's side of the story.
- Narrator: Coming up:
A new witness emerges.
- Suddenly, there's another person that was
In the apartment that night and that person
Might have seen something.
- Narrator: And a twisted coverup is revealed.
- I told them that they need to find his cell phone.
- ♪
- Narrator: Though the shooting death of rahim grant
Was originally believed to be an act of self-defense,
New clues now suggest the case might not be so simple.
- He had received injuries. He had a cut on his head.
He had injuries, uh to his arms.
And those would be injuries that would not normally be
From an aggressor in this type of altercation.
It would be consistent if he was alleging self-defense,
The injuries that he had received.
That leaves the questions of was it actual murder?
Was it possibly manslaughter?
- Narrator: On January 4th, six days after the shooting,
Investigators are finally able to speak with the woman
They believe shot rahim,
The mother of his child, ciera harp.
- She was released from the hospital.
She was living with her mother.
At this point, she was a witness.
We're working on a self-defense theory.
So, it was a voluntary interview.
- Ciera described rahim as, um, violent,
Had beaten her for years.
- Ciera told detectives that rahim had a friend
Come over that night from the gym.
Her name was alesse jones.
- Police, at that point, became interested
Because suddenly, there's another person
That was in the apartment that night
And that person might have seen something.
- Ciera said that she had a knife holster
Down at her ankle and that's where she always kept her knife.
And she said during the course of the fight,
The knife fell out and rahim was able to grab it
And start stabbing her.
- Sometime after alesse left,
Ciera claimed that rahim flew into a rage.
She claimed that she was crying,
And the blood was running into her face,
And she was blinded at that point.
- Rahim had a gun on him,
That according to ciera, he carried all the time.
She was able to grab the gun
And she just started firing the gun.
- She didn't know if she had hit him,
But she knew that he'd stopped coming at her.
- During the course of her interview,
She was behaving relatively normally.
She seemed credible.
- Narrator: Still, detectives press ciera
About some evidence that doesn't fit her story.
- The blood evidence showed to me
That rahim sustained that
As he was lying face down on the floor.
When he sustained that wound
That created that blood spatter against that wall.
And she says, "he's attacking me."
But you can't attack someone
When you're lying face down on the floor.
- The hole in the top of his head, that gunshot wound.
That always bothered me.
The blood spatter on the wall coming from that wound.
It takes thousands of puzzle pieces to put together a puzzle.
I only needed one at that point.
And that one piece of the puzzle
Showed me what she was saying wasn't true.
- Narrator: Without hard evidence
To contradict ciera's story of self-defense,
Investigators let her go
And track down alesse jones for questioning.
- She said that she had shown up with rahim.
And got a feel that there, there was some tension in the air.
- She told police that rahim had gotten up
And gone into the back bedroom with ciera,
That she perceived that perhaps
They were about to have an argument.
- She sends rahim a text saying "hey, I'm outta here."
That text came in at 10:26.
Less than thirty minutes later, rahim is dead.
- It told us at that moment, that last text message,
We knew that rahim hadn't been shot.
The timeline that alesse gave us
Was inconsistent with what ciera told police.
She never heard anybody hit anyone.
She never heard anyone say they were getting a gun
Or getting a knife or anything like that.
Yet again, we have another lie coming from ciera,
Who's trying to manipulate the situation.
- Narrator: After speaking with alesse,
Detectives focus their investigation
On learning more about rahim and ciera's history together.
- The neighbor had suspected that there had been a domestic
Between her and rahim,
Not because she knew anything about it,
But just because of the circumstances that night.
Also, ciera made those allegations during her interview
That rahim was violent with her in the past.
We weren't able to substantiate any of those allegations.
- If there was fighting going on
Somebody would've been calling the police.
There would be some record of that happening
On a regular basis. But I have never heard of
Anything like that while I worked there.
- Narrator: Digging through records,
Investigators discover something
That once again, calls ciera's account into question.
- Ciera actually signed over the rights to angel to rahim.
We had the piece of paper that showed that she signed
All rights over to rahim
So that he could have full custody.
Why ciera did that? I don't know.
- Narrator: Detectives circle back
To rahim's mother, geraldine grant,
For more intel on the status
Of her son's relationship with ciera.
- We had to go to court in January
To try to get the final custody.
She came over because angel birthday was in November,
And that's when she was crying and saying she had lost her job,
And the young lady that she was living with,
Uh, put her out.
And we was like, well, you know, if ciera leave,
We can't get in touch with her
Then the whole case is gonna be just voided.
So, we needed to keep her close.
- He wants it government approved.
He wants documents to say that he is the father,
And he has custody of her.
So, he wanted to appease her during this time
So that he can get custody of the baby.
- Narrator: According to geraldine,
In December, as rahim prepared for his upcoming tour,
Ciera's behavior became increasingly erratic.
- Rahim's mom tells police that ciera is very jealous,
And she tells it that she has instructed rahim
To pull out his cell phone whenever she acts up
And start recording.
- Then I told them that they need to find his cell phone.
And they said, we have his cell phone, we have it.
And then I told them they needed to look
In his cell phone because he keeps a cloud
And if he was doing anything, it was recorded on that cell phone.
- Narrator: Coming up:
Detectives unlock damning evidence.
- Ciera is in the background screaming and yelling.
And then you hear a shot ring out.
- Once they got to watch those videos,
That's when the truth really started to come out.
- Narrator: And rahim grant's final moments
Come into grim focus.
- ♪
- Narrator: After a month of investigating
The shooting death of rahim grant,
Investigators believe they might have footage
Of his last moments in their evidence locker
That could be damning to ciera harp's
Claim of self-defense.
- At that point in time, investigators wanted to know,
Was there any recordings on rahim grant's phone?
- No one knew the passcode. For weeks,
The police department could not get into rahim's cell phone.
- There are multiple law enforcement tools
That will extract what is on a cell phone
And put it into a report.
Unfortunately, not all cell phones can be broken.
As that phone just sat there, nobody in the world
Knew exactly what happened except for ciera harp,
And she didn't tell anybody.
- Narrator: While techs attempt to unlock rahim's phone,
Authorities begin learning more about ciera harp.
- Narrator: Born on January 1st, 1989,
Ciera harp always struggled to find her place.
- Ciera was a troubled child. She didn't follow rules well.
She would skip school. She would fight people.
Some of ciera's siblings said, "my mother ran a tight ship.
She wanted you to do right."
- Narrator: As she entered her teenage years,
Ciera continued to rebel.
- She always kept a knife on her. Little pocketknife.
She told me that she had got kicked out of school
For stabbing somebody over a boy.
- She had allegations of impropriety
Against a high school teacher
That were later determined to be unfounded.
Claimed that she had been molested by either a relative
Or a neighbor or something like that.
That proved to be unfounded.
- She would tell me little stories that made me wonder.
She was like, well, you know, I couldn't stand my stepfather.
I didn't like my sister because her husband.
It was always a man. It was always,
She always wanted these men, and they didn't want her.
- She was pregnant with rahim's baby
When I ended up exchanging words with rahim.
I said, "bro, you just don't understand
"what you dealing with. You dancin' with the devil.
"she gon' get you hurt
If she don't do something to you herself."
- Narrator: While details of ciera's past
Raise plenty of suspicion, investigators still don't have
The necessary evidence to charge her with murder.
- If someone acted in self-defense,
Then that person acted lawfully, even as tragically as it is
That someone else is dead.
You can't arrest someone who acted in self-defense.
- Narrator: Their only hope is rahim's cell phone.
- Detectives actually called ciera up
And said, "hey, we're about ready to close this case.
"the one thing that's left to remain,
"that we'd like to get into rahim's phone
"and see if there's any further evidence that we need,
"but there's a passcode on it.
Do you happen to know what that passcode is?"
And she gave them the passcode to get into the phone.
- Once they got to watch those videos,
That's when the truth really started to come out.
- Narrator: Nearly two months after rahim's death,
A clear picture of his last moments
Finally comes into focus.
- There were four videos of the murder
Right there in front of us.
- The first video started at 10:27,
Less than a minute after alesse left.
- And he's showing all of his injuries on his face.
And ciera is in the background screaming and yelling.
And then you hear a shot ring out.
It hit the bathroom mirror. Another shot breaks free,
And rahim drops the phone. You hear him grunt in pain.
And we're assuming that shot hit him in the back.
And that's when ciera comes into the photo
Because the phone drops on the floor, camera up,
And ciera is standing over the camera yelling at rahim.
And is just completely losing her mind,
Screaming at him in pure unadulterated rage.
- The video showed that self-defense wasn't really
What was on her mind.
- He has been shot, but still, he manages to remain calm.
He says, "I'm going to die. I'm going to die."
And she seems to suggest that "yes, you are."
Also, ciera had told police that she had been attacked,
Had been stabbed in her legs. On the video, she's upright.
She doesn't appear to be stabbed.
- We were able to take
Still shots from the video itself
And compare them to photographs from the hospital.
And we could see a clear difference
Between the two of them.
- The left leg, the pants were completely intact.
There was no blood on them and actually she had
The pant leg pulled up to the point
To expose the tattoo on her calf.
There was no injury to the tattoo.
So, you could tell that, that wound occurred after
The video had been taken.
Rahim is doing a lot of talking, asking for a bottle of water.
Um, asking her to let him go see the baby.
And that's when the first video ends.
- Then they go to the second video.
- You can't see any injuries, but she's got blood on her face.
- During this, rahim is essentially on the floor.
He's bleeding out.
- It's one of those moments where you step back,
Take a deep breath, and put everything in your mind
Into a completely different perspective
That no longer is this the normal the behavior
Of a domestic abuse victim.
This is manipulative behavior of a murderer.
- What hit me the hardest is toward the end,
He pleads to just be able to give his daughter a hug.
I think at this point in time,
He knows that he's not making it past this night.
- He wants to kiss angel, and she says
You can crawl to her, mother [bleep],
And she shoots him twice. At that point,
You hear him grunt out in pain.
And that's when that video stops.
Pick back up to the third video.
You actually hear a child's voice in the background
Say, "daddy, daddy."
You can actually hear angel calling for her father.
And I think that was the final one
That really put ciera over the top,
And that sixth gunshot you don't hear anymore movement.
You don't hear any grunts from- from rahim.
It was that- it was a coup de grace.
She stood over him and fired that final round
Into the top of his head as he laid on the ground.
- There was no threat. There was no danger there.
He was on the ground. He was incapacitated.
And she still fired.
- At that point, we were confident
That we had a really good murder case.
- Narrator: Coming up: To convince a jury,
Prosecutors must separate fact from fiction.
- It's not that we don't believe women
Are victims of domestic abuse.
We did not believe this particular woman.
- They were worried about the narrative
That ciera had spent about him being violent.
- She just thought she could outsmart the system.
- ♪
- Narrator: On February 22nd, 2018,
Authorities in clayton county, georgia,
Arrest 29-year-old ciera harp
For the murder of rahim grant
After discovering video evidence of his horrific murder.
- I've seen a lot of evil in my career,
But I've never seen evil document itself like that.
- Her second interview was far more interesting.
That's when they confront her with the video.
When the first gunshot goes off, she covers her face.
And she just has this "oh my god" look on her face.
Despite obvious evidence that what she said happened
Didn't actually happen,
She sticks to her self-defense story
Until they end the interview.
- Maybe she had convinced herself
That her story was correct, which I think is possible.
Maybe she had told that story enough
That she believed it to be true.
- Narrator: In may 2019, ciera's claims of self-defense
Are tested during her murder trial.
- Our theory is she pulled the knife
That she admitted she always carried
And started swinging it around, and that's when rahim
Received those superficial wounds to his face.
That's when he picked up his phone
And went into the bathroom and started video recording
And showing everybody that could see the video
What she had done to him.
I think when she realized that now he was documenting
The injury she inflicted upon him,
And she would have to explain that,
That's when she pulled his .380 out
And she shot him.
- Narrator: Ciera's defense team
Does their best to combat the video evidence.
- The defense strategy was twofold.
Number one, it was to claim self-defense,
That that night that she was acting in self-defense.
The other strategy was to combine that
With a battered person syndrome.
- What georgia law says is you can use self-defense
When it's reasonable to, if you believe
You need to defend your life upon immanent injury.
What's important there" "if it's reasonable."
That's where battered woman's defense comes into play,
Because it examines whether or not
That belief is reasonable or not.
You could argue that maybe her reaction was excessive,
But in the context of somebody who's experienced
Multiple traumas, past abuse,
That reaction is justified and needed.
- Narrator: Those closest to rahim and ciera
Paint a different picture on the witness stand.
- Ciera was never crazy. She was always a person
That thought out carefully what she did.
- Everything she did was logical.
She was logical in that she stabbed herself afterward
To try to make it look like self-defense.
She grabbed rahim's cell phone and ran with rahim's cell phone.
The four videos, approximately 13 minutes long,
Mostly show her, and the whole time,
She is screaming at him about how he has beaten her,
All the things that he has done to her.
- I kept thinking, "this is a movie,"
As I'm watching it in court. This is a movie.
But it was real. It was horrific.
It- it was horrible.
- In her mind, this rant that she goes on
In the video is going to further show the investigators
How much of a victim she was.
- She just thought she could outsmart the system.
Everybody wanted to say, you know, she look innocent.
- Prosecutors had to be worried about the narrative
That ciera had spent about him being violent.
That he had abused her, because she's in this video
Screaming about "you abused me for four years."
- It's not that we don't believe
Women are victims of domestic abuse.
We did not believe this particular woman.
Maybe if she didn't cold blooded kill him like she just did.
So, we went to great lengths to make sure that the public knew,
Hey, your district attorney's office is here to represent you,
But we will represent true victims.
Ciera harp was not a victim in this case.
Rahim grant was the victim.
- Narrator: On may 22nd,
Ciera harp's cries of self-defense to the jury
Go unheard and she is found guilty
Of six counts of aggravated assault and malice murder.
- I think the video provided a backdrop
Was it would rebut any type of defense
That her team would try to put up.
A jury would be able to see what a defense lawyer would say
Might have happened that night.
But the jury actually saw, when we provided those videos,
What did happen that night, and that's rare.
Rahim deserves a lot of the credit.
Rahim solved his murder for me.
- I don't know if justice can ever be served
On a case like this.
You know, it's not just justice for rahim.
It's justice for angel.
Angel was robbed of her mother and her father in one night.
- Angel feeled a little bit better,
But she misses her dad every day
And she talks about him every day.
And her thing is, "I don't know why
Would she kill my daddy. He was a great daddy."
- I guess the biggest tragedy is we'll never know.
We'll never know fully what we lost.
We don't know what kind of career he would have had.
We don't know what impact he would have had on angel.
- I want rahim to be remembered as a great son,
Great father, great person.
And let the world know that
He was about being there for others,
And he loved his daughter.
- ♪