This is the big breakdown. A long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers podcast and True Crime Today. This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. Here now, Tony Bruske.

In almost every murder trial, defense attorneys share one golden rule. Keep your client off the stand. The risks outweigh

the rewards. Cross-examination can tread even the most confident defendant, and jurors often

judge demeanor as much as words. But Donna Edelson isn't following the rulebook even before this

trial officially began.

Word leaked that she intends to testify.

That announcement alone tells you something about her mindset,

because typically the decision to put a defendant on the stand

comes mid-trial after seeing how the evidence lands,

after gauging the jury.

But Donna, well, she's signaling from the jump that she wants her moment.

And why?

Maybe it's overconfidence.

Maybe it's control.

Maybe it's the same pattern we saw in the emails.

Donna calling the shots no matter what her attorney's advice. But there's danger there. The state isn't coming in empty-handed. They're right there. They've got her airport arrest warrant with a one-way ticket to Vietnam,

a country with no U.S. extradition.

They've got recorded calls with Charlie after his conviction that prosecutors say

reek of consciousness of guilt.

And they've got the narrative that every other conspirator is already convicted, leaving Donna

as the last piece of the puzzle. So when she takes the stand, it won't be a grandmother defending

herself. It will be the alleged matriarch of a murder plot. Trying to explain away the unexplainable.

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