Law & Order (1990) s02e19 Episode Script

Narrator: In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups the police who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
It's a damn Indian winter.
That's summer, genius.
No such thing as Indian winter.
Yeah? When it's this cold this late in the year it is definitely, definitely somebody's fault.
Ah, so blame it on the Native Americans? You got somebody else better to blame? The problem with the world today crap doesn't just happen.
It's gotta be someone's fault.
Yeah, well it keeps us in business.
Makes a lot of lawyers rich.
Early morning jog? Five to two they did something.
It's too cold to find out exactly what.
Look at this.
It's freezing outside.
What harm could it do? There's smoke, maybe there's fire.
Could be a medal of honor in this.
- Hey, you coming? - In and out.
In and out.
How am I supposed to finish my morning coffee? Next lifetime I'm coming back as a CPA.
No outdoor work no work at all before 9:00 a.
m.
Come on, Bobby, it's a damn trash fire.
Bobby: Trash my ass.
That's a body.
Man: So far, not a whole lot.
The flame burned evenly hardly touched the skin.
Multiple bruises, fractures, all from a blunt object.
Still, your clothes are on fire, you're going to be doing a rain dance.
This guy was probably dead before they torched him.
We've also got a mess of footprints.
See if you can size it.
You caught it? Just saw the flames from the car.
- You got any witnesses? - None standing in line to be interviewed.
He's beaten, then burned.
He had to scream.
Somebody had to hear.
Look, I don't know if this means anything, but a minute or two before we found the body, we saw four or five black kids run by heading uptown.
Yeah, could you pick 'em out? The victim's name is Ezra Shore.
He lives on Columbus Avenue.
I thought this crap only happened in Brooklyn.
Come again? You didn't tell him? The dead guy, he was wearing one of those those Jewish beanie things.
Son, that's called a yarmulke.
He wasn't just beaten, he was brutalized.
Listen, the smoke clears on this it's gonna be Crown Heights revisited.
There is no evidence that this is any kind of a hate crime, Mike.
Did you get a look at these photographs? Two uniforms on the scene said a bunch of black kids Run across the street.
Come on, you've seen this play out before.
We jump to conclusions, the press follows our lead, the waters get so muddy we never see the bottom.
What do you want to do, treat it like a mugging? No, I want to treat it like a homicide.
We play the usuals.
Family, friends, business But we're just spinning our wheels we go that way.
Maybe not, Mike.
As you said, Ezra was brutalized.
That means there should be blood all over.
But CSU didn't find blood spatters anywhere near the scene.
So they killed him someplace else and dumped him in the alley.
Right, but hate crimes are crimes of fear.
They're spontaneous.
The bodies usually don't get moved.
- And the fire? - Destroying evidence.
Or sending a message.
You know what might be helpful here? If we could find out a little something about the departed Mr.
Shore.
It wasn't the fire that killed him.
It was the beating.
Blood-oxygen analysis, he was dead before they torched him.
You think there were more than one? Angle of blows to the head, chest broken vertebrae in the spine yeah, I'd say so.
Yeah, that or a Mack truck.
Did he put up a fight? He didn't go gentle.
Defensive wounds on the hands and arms.
Fingernail scrapings we got some dried blood.
Enough to tell a story? Not enough to DNA, sorry.
But one of them was type AB.
Hey, that narrows it down.
Well, this is just a preliminary, Mike.
Ezra called me from the store.
It must have been around 6:00.
That was the last time you talked to him? He said he would be working late with Isaac.
"Go ahead," he said.
Eat without him.
- Isaac? - His brother.
What business is your husband in, Mrs.
Shore? Jewels diamonds mostly.
He has his own store on West 47th Street.
Was business good? I don't understand.
Well, sometimes if there's a problem with cash flow, one might be induced to borrow money from the wrong people.
My husband did very well, Detective.
One shouldn't be saying Yizkor for a man of 45.
It's the prayer for the dead.
Do you have any idea who? Well, there was something.
Every now and then they hassled me and Ben on the way back from school these black kids.
It's no big deal.
- The police should know everything, Caleb.
- Now they do.
Now, is there a possibility that your husband was carrying the jewelry on him, when? Anything that would relate to the business, you would have to ask Isaac.
He's probably at the shop closing up right now.
Our father died Ezra never missed a beat.
He took over the business? Yes.
I was independent.
I thought I didn't need the family.
I learned the hard way.
Six years ago, Ezra took me in.
Rachel said that you were here with him last night.
Went over inventories till maybe about 8:00.
And then? I left.
If I knew it was going to be the last time We had words.
Had a disagreement over purchase orders.
Did he ever carry the stones on him? Sure.
He signed out lot 492.
Six stones worth probably I'm sure he had a late sales meeting.
He often visited clients after store hours.
You telling me he'd walk around with that much in his pocket? In a briefcase.
It's the way we do business.
- Do you mind if I look? - Please.
The meeting you know where it was or with whom? Ezra lived for his work.
He often visited four or five clients in an evening.
Your brother use this car service? Yes, Miracle Limo.
They're over on 10th.
Used to be you flip through a couple of pages takes two seconds.
Now you've got to boot the damn machine.
Whatever the hell that is.
Here you go, Shore Diamonds.
Yesterday, pick up 9:15 p.
m.
, - Cerreta: And you dropped him? - 21st and 7th.
That's a lot of real estate.
You got anything more specific? Hey, you're lucky I got the machine turned on.
Yeah, we're lucky.
Ezra got here at the earliest at 8:30.
So it has to be somebody who works late.
See what we got.
Interior design firm, temp employment agency, public relations company.
It's a lot of doctors.
Bringing 10 Gs worth of diamonds to a check-up? I don't think so.
- An accountant? - Flannigan.
Nah.
Here we go, Summers Estate Sales.
7th floor.
Cerreta: Top floor, Near East Gems.
Joe Tashjian, President.
Oh my God.
He was a nice man.
I guess I should call on the family.
Yesterday, Mr.
Tashjian, did you have a meeting with Ezra Shore? A meeting, no.
A battle, yes.
You don't talk to Ezra Shore, you butt heads.
He showed up quarter to 10:00.
Haggled for maybe two hours.
So you bought his diamonds? I'm an importer, Detective.
I buy abroad, I sell domestic.
Ezra bought sapphires and rubies from me.
Bargained me down to 15 Gs.
- And he left here with them? - Sure.
- You want a copy? - Maybe.
Did Ezra say where he was headed when he left here? Tried calling his car service but he couldn't get through.
Said he'd hail a cab on the corner.
The jewels, they weren't on the body? I don't want to be crude or anything but the sapphires and the rubies they weren't paid for yet.
$10,000 in diamonds, another 15 in sapphires and rubies, and this guy travels around unprotected? Do you prefer he'd carry a piece? I'd prefer he traveled by armored car.
Wouldn't have mattered.
You rob someone, you take the money and run.
You don't hang out for a beating and a barbecue.
My call is they were after Ezra.
The diamonds were gravy.
Whatever.
They took the jewels.
We find the jewels, we find our guys.
We got some lines out on the local pawns.
half-a-dozen watches, some gold earrings.
No sapphires, no rubies, no unmounted diamonds.
Did Ezra Shore have a kid named Caleb? - Yeah, why? - He's in holding.
Seems he did quite a number on some homeboy's face.
Says here you went after one Reginald Beggs, black, 15 years old.
What happened, Caleb? Hmm? Is this one of the kids who bothered you before? Yeah, sure.
Problem is two witnesses say you were all over him.
No provocation, nothing.
Caleb, all you have to do is tell us the truth and we can help you out.
It's as simple as that.
You know you can't go beating on every black kid in the city.
What do you want? The guy killed Dad.
He told you this? It's all over the neighborhood.
Those guys were laughing about Dad dying in an alley.
Laughing doesn't mean he killed him.
The son of a bitch said he liked burning him.
He said I was next.
What do you want me to do? You hassling me and it's my face that's busted up.
- You're just a perfect angel, ain't ya? - You got that! Caleb Shore says it was you who did the number on his old man.
Oh, so I must be lying then.
Well, tell me this, Reg, the guy's gonna pop you for no reason? You look at them guys? They look normal to you? Look, like I said, I was just hanging.
Next thing you know, my head's being smashed into the sidewalk and my nose ain't attached to my face.
Tuesday morning, who were you hanging with? I was here with my sister studying! I'm gonna be a lawyer.
That's some picture, Reg.
- You had a nice smile.
- Yeah, before he busted up my face.
You mind? I got a choice? Used to be you want to stay alive, you stay below 86th Street.
Nowadays somebody's just looking to step into something up there.
This one of the kids you guys saw that day? We weren't really looking.
Well, what about clothes? Anything? They were running.
Sorry.
That deli on the corner of 93rd.
Guys like to hang there.
They don't bother me my customers.
I let them hang.
Mm-hmm.
Is this one of them? Two packs a day.
Tries to get me to sell him beer.
- The day of the murder? - Couldn't say.
- You believe that stuff? - We can be convinced.
It's talk.
All these kids are looking for juice.
- 15 and they need a rep.
- Did you hear Reggie admit to it? Yeah, that and 25 other things.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Well, it corroborates Caleb's story.
It might just be talk.
At least we know Reggie hangs in the neighborhood.
We got nothing to put him in that alleyway, though.
Maybe we do.
What size shoe do you think Reggie wears? Let's talk to the man about a warrant.
Yo, you can't be serious, man.
Yo, you can't take my Michaels, man.
Not both of them, son, just the left one.
Yo, I got rights.
And we got a warrant.
So give us the shoe now or you come downtown, we run it through some tests and you're out of there.
- With my shoe? - Depends what we find.
You see this here? It's kind of blurry lighter than over here.
Whoever wears this shoe over-pronates when he walks.
It's worn away uneven.
Similar wear patterns here.
Unfortunately they're not fingerprints.
What's this? Running shoes tend to pick up more pebbles, glass, et cetera, et cetera.
Now, is it possible these two prints are from the same shoe? Yes.
Is it probable? I can't say for sure which means I wouldn't be a very good witness.
Reggie doesn't know that.
Can I borrow these two? Yo, you're only doing this because I'm black.
This one was lifted out of the alley the day that Ezra Shore was murdered, Reggie.
So what you want me to do? I want you to look at this one.
It's from your shoe.
Logan: They're the same.
It proves you were in the alley at the time of the murder.
Man, go ahead with that.
We have two people who swear you were bragging about it.
So? That don't prove nothing.
Yeah, it proves you stepped in something, Reg.
And it stinks real bad and it's not going away.
What'd you do? You killed him for the jewels? Or 'cause he was Jewish? Yo, I ain't do anything.
You know what, Reggie? I personally don't believe you.
Yo, talk to the deli guy.
I was in there buying cigarettes.
I didn't know what was going down.
Who was it, Reggie? I am talking to you.
Fontaine, man.
Yo, crazy, man.
And Cyrus and Harley.
I came out the store, they was lighting him on fire, man.
And beating the living crap out of him? What was it? Baseball bats? Bricks? How'd it feel when you crushed his skull? Yo, that's bull, man.
To hell with this punk.
for him.
Yo, look yeah, but I just watched, man.
I swear, I didn't have nothing against that dude.
And Fontaine did? Yeah.
He said they should go back where they came from.
Wait a minute here.
He says his buddies did the number on Ezra in the alley and we already know there's no blood there? His story may not get 100% on the stink test, but it's a start.
Mike, I've had month-old flounder that smelled better.
He knew the MO, the beating, the fire.
Yeah, so maybe he reads the newspapers.
Granted, his facts are a little off, but the bottom line is he says he saw it go down.
We got two uniforms who saw four kids running from the scene.
Reggie named three names.
If he's completely innocent, he keeps his mouth shut.
Sure, sitting in a police interrogation room without his shoes.
You check out these homeboys? We ran their names and they're clean.
What about the diamonds? He says he never saw the briefcase.
That could be his buddies.
Cragen.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
All right, 3:00.
Okay.
Everybody wants to join the party now.
Cragen: Yes, we've got a witness.
Only his facts don't exactly jive with our forensics report.
How far off-base is he? With the beating that Ezra took, there should have been blood splatters somewhere, and we found nothing.
Zip.
Which means he wasn't killed in the alley.
Except Mr.
Beggs said he saw the guys do the job on the spot.
Suppose the blood was on garbage that was destroyed in the fire.
Could be the kid's telling the truth.
Well, we've applied for warrants.
Maybe we'll find the briefcase or the jewels.
Look, this is not the only dance on my card.
Typical case, your office wouldn't even be involved yet.
It's not a typical case.
Ben, I want you to present this to a grand jury.
There's no way we convict.
Even a mediocre lawyer gets this tossed.
I'm not talking about a conviction.
I'm talking about an indictment.
We get a bill, at least it looks like we're doing something.
Politics controlling the grand jury process? This is a political office.
The kid says he's an eyewitness.
We put him at the scene.
This isn't the first time we get an indictment and then develop our case before trial.
You got the names of these other kids? Yeah.
Read them their rights.
Turn around! Fontaine Robinson, Cyrus Tanner, Harley Monks, you're under arrest for the murder of Ezra Shore.
- Who is that?! - That's harassment! - Sue us! - You have the right to an attorney.
If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you.
You have the right to remain silent.
If you waive that right, anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
Take 'em away.
Clerk: Docket number 776761.
People versus Fontaine Robinson, Cyrus Tanner and Harley Monks.
One count each, murder in the second degree.
And one count each, robbery in the first degree.
Is Legal Aid representing these defendants just for the arraignment? I'm in it for the long haul, Your Honor.
Well, give me a plea, Ms.
Langstrom.
Not guilty.
The people are serving grand jury notice upon the defense and filing the same with the Court.
So noted.
What do I hear on bail? Under the circumstances, Your Honor, they're teenagers, it's excessive.
Would it make a difference if the state asked for $50,000, Ms.
Langstrom? Bail is set at $100,000.
Next.
Crumbs don't make a loaf, Ben.
Only thing this proves is that Reggie Beggs and his high-tops were in the alley at some point.
And Reggie put your boys with him.
Fine, at best that would make him an accomplice meaning you're short on corroboration.
The blood under the victim's fingernail matches Harley Monks'.
It also matches me and a couple million others in Manhattan.
Look, you searched my client's homes, you ran their clothing through the lab, and you came up with goose eggs no baseball bats, no blood tracks.
All show and no tell.
It's enough for the grand jury to indict.
And I'll have it dismissed before your head hits the pillow.
With an eyewitness? I doubt it.
Reggie Beggs went bragging on the street that your clients killed Ezra Shore.
And posturing constitutes evidence? Look, you think I don't know what you're up to? You and Schiff can put on your happy faces for the press.
But I'm telling you now, you go the distance on this, you can expect a civil rights suit against the city.
You get the feeling we're scrambling to catch a train here? Hello? Uh-huh.
What's up? All right.
Isaac Shore and his lawyer they want to meet with us before the grand jury.
Now you come to us? The grand jury starts in 15 minutes.
Ezra was my brother.
Believe me, I want to help.
But I have to visit my rabbi before I do anything.
It's a matter of Talmudic law.
There may be a prohibition against incriminating family members.
Isaac, we've got three teenagers suspected of killing your brother.
How in the world do you expect They were also charged with robbery.
I assume you're going to ask Isaac about the diamonds Ezra was carrying when he left the store.
Of course, but what does that have to do with your client's family? Let's assume for a moment that all the required duties weren't paid when those particular diamonds entered the country.
Mr.
Shore's heirs could be liable for substantial fines.
Give me a couple of days, we'll check with the rabbi.
It's probably much ado anyway.
He's scheduled as second witness.
He's been subpoenaed.
And if he doesn't testify, you know I can hold him for contempt.
Yes, I also know you're not going to do that, Ben.
We could grant the family transactual immunity.
That's possible, but It means whatever you say on the stand, no matter how much you incriminate them, they can't be charged.
So even if the Talmud prohibits it You're perfectly in the clear.
Only, tell me, Ben, are you going to put Caleb on the stand? All right, fine.
They both have immunity.
Tashjian: It was a good two hours before we settled on a price $15,000.
How many stones were there exactly? Three sapphires, one carat each.
The rubies were small.
Half carat, maybe four stones.
And what did Mr.
Shore do with them? He put them in his briefcase with his diamonds.
Then what did he do? He left.
I assume he was going home to his family.
Isaac: I know from the ledger Ezra signed out lot 492.
What was the value of the diamonds in lot 492? Retail, maybe $10,000.
Did your brother often take diamonds from the store? If he had business that evening or early the next morning, yes.
Mr.
Shore, do you have any idea who might have killed your brother? Well, I know Ezra had problems in the neighborhood.
Thank you.
It was just Dad, Bennie, and me.
We got to the park on 100th.
We used to cut through, but since the black kids started hassling us, we go around.
What happened on that particular day? These four guys were hanging there.
The same guys that we'd seen before.
And they called us names.
You know, Yid, kike.
Stone: Then what happened? Caleb: Dad yelled at them and he said that he'd kick their butts if they didn't lay off.
I was on Amsterdam near 93rd.
I went to this deli to buy a pack of cigarettes.
And then what did you do, Mr.
Beggs? I went outside to look for my friends.
And what were they doing? They was in a alley.
They were standing over Mr.
Shore.
Cyrus threw garbage on him.
Fontaine lit him on fire.
Now, let's back up a step, Mr.
Beggs.
You left the deli, you went to the alley.
What was the first thing you saw? Like I told you, they lit him on fire.
Mr.
Beggs, you testified under oath to the police that you saw your friends beat Mr.
Shore and then set him on fire.
I was scared, man.
I didn't know what to do.
Young man, are you now telling me that that was a lie? Look I had to tell them something.
I seen Fontaine start the fire, that's it.
That man was already dead when I got there.
But you also told Caleb Shore that your friends killed his father.
That was just air, man.
You just made this up? It's like I was just trying it's about getting juice.
You know, like, people think you wasted a man, they step aside when you walk by.
Do you know what perjury is, Mr.
Beggs? I'm sorry we lit him up.
I'm sorry I lied.
You don't believe me, that's up to you.
A witness changes his story on the stand, I had to withdraw the murder case from the grand jury.
I had no choice.
You get a bad lie, you don't pick up the ball, walk off the course.
There's no way the grand jury would indict.
Even if I finished presenting, they'd "no bill" the kid.
Then what? And then we wouldn't have some Op-Ed wannabe write that we're choosing sides.
Oh, great.
Two weeks ago we were patsies of the Jewish lobby, now it's the black caucus.
marching together in Selma, Alabama.
Now it's every man for himself.
You're named as respondent in this petition for a writ of mandamus.
Force us to re-present this case to the grand jury.
Who filed it? Isaac Shore.
He also wants us to release the grand jury transcripts.
He's angry.
He wants justice.
Talk him out of it.
There was no conspiracy no gentlemen's agreement.
The case simply fell through.
My brother was beaten and burned.
The police have the boys that did it! You let them go! What am I supposed to think?! That we didn't have enough evidence.
We relied on the wrong witness.
Or that Ezra was the wrong victim? Lawyer: Come on, it's obviously a whitewash.
Their community leaders scream louder than ours, the case mysteriously disappears.
If and when we get new evidence we will resubmit to the grand jury.
Then what? Two days later you withdraw? Stone: What's your implication? It's no implication, Ben.
It's an assertion.
We all know if you wanted an indictment, you could've gotten one.
- That's nonsense.
- Prove it.
Turn over those transcripts.
Grand jury proceedings are secret.
Fine, then we'll proceed with the writ of mandamus.
And you'll lose.
The decision to resubmit is entirely within my discretion.
There's a statutory prohibition against releasing transcripts.
Not if I can prove to the judge there was prosecutorial misconduct.
These boys killed my brother.
I will not turn the other cheek, Mr.
Stone.
All right, I'll make the transcripts available.
Thank you.
I'll send over a messenger.
No, you'll see them in my office, Mr.
Shore.
Mr.
Shore has two families to feed.
We're talking almost a day's worth of reading.
Who's it going to hurt? I'll bend the rules for your client, Mr.
Tobis, I won't break them.
You want to read those transcripts? Come to One Hogan Place.
The case is summarily withdrawn from the grand jury.
Isaac's got a legitimate gripe.
Reading the transcripts is the only way to convince himself nothing funny went down.
Exactly, so it shouldn't matter where he reads them.
Unless someone else wants to see the transcripts the real killers.
Could be this case has nothing to do with race.
Diamonds.
Money.
Greed is always a good place to start.
Stone: Let's take a look at the grieving brother.
The past three months, cash flow reports show that Shore Jewelry bought over $3 million worth of diamonds.
Not bad in a recession.
Only, during the same period, they only carried - What's this have to do with Isaac? - I'm getting there.
- They bought more diamonds than they insured? - $900,000 more.
- Who prepared the insurance lists? - Isaac.
He did the books, too, right? It could be Isaac was skimming from the business.
Buying jewels for his own account with company money.
And Ezra found out? Isaac killing his own brother? I don't know if I buy that.
Maybe he's not in this alone? Hmmm, maybe.
The discrepancies are too big to be overlooked.
The diamond market is very complicated.
Inventory is tied to real market value.
You expect us to believe you undervalued your inventory for the purposes of insurance? If that's what he says he did.
What I think he did was steal large sums of money from his brother.
You think Isaac killed his brother? Robinette: He had motive and opportunity.
We can make a case.
Stone: All the evidence points to you, Mr.
Shore.
But we know you didn't do it alone.
So speak up, and maybe we can work something out.
Nice try.
Come on, Isaac.
Mike, wait.
I'd like to talk to my attorney in private.
Almost 20 minutes.
You think Tobis will let him talk or what? I think he'll cough up a name.
His lawyer is just plugging up the loopholes.
I want to say this for the record.
My client still has immunity deriving from his appearance before the grand jury.
Whatever he says, you can't touch him.
I'm the one, Mr.
Stone.
I killed Ezra.
I did it alone.
Mr.
Shore, this is a mistake.
You're protecting someone, why? Believe whatever you want.
It's what happened.
We gave him immunity because he didn't want to testify about the business.
- We never mentioned the murder.
- The statute covers anything he talks about.
We gave him immunity as quid pro quo for his testimony.
He lied.
That's got to break the deal.
- Common sense.
- Common sense has nothing to do with it.
The man waives his Fifth Amendment rights by testifying.
Whether he tells the truth or not.
It doesn't matter.
He's entitled to immunity.
Do you think he killed his brother? No, I think he's protecting someone.
Uh-huh, all right, then we threaten him with perjury.
The idea of four years in Attica should scare the hell out of him.
He'll talk.
The alternative might scare him a lot more.
I don't think he's protecting a friend.
- The man's scared.
- I can't say that I blame him.
- He saw what happened to his brother.
- The man is desperate enough to steal from his own family.
Subpoena his personal records and find out who he owes money to.
Adam, banks kill with a thousand cuts, not with a whack on the head.
Some lenders are in a bigger hurry.
Ezra dies, Isaac gets the business.
It's a very good way to insure prompt payment.
His bank statements look clean.
No evidence of regular payments to anyone.
No withdrawals.
So it's not about money? I didn't say that.
Remember the diamonds Isaac bought but never insured? They were all purchased from Joseph Tashjian.
$300,000 worth of sapphires and rubies each month.
A month later, they were sold back to Tashjian at a $10,000 mark-up.
And you don't think Tashjian is stupid about money? I don't think the diamonds exist.
It's all paperwork smoke and mirrors with real money shuttling back and forth through bank transfers.
So it's ready to fluff and fold.
It's a laundry.
Dirty money in, clean money out.
With phony receipts to make it all look kosher.
They're laundering over $4 million a year.
The Shore brothers get $10,000 off every resale? Their fee for laundering Tashjian's money.
Tashjian's was the last place Ezra went.
I'll get a warrant.
Half an hour, my lawyer'll have an injunction.
- Your butts'll be out of here.
- In a half an hour, your butt's going to be in a patrol car if you don't shut up! Phil.
You want a Rolex? Or maybe a Cartier for the missus? Looks like, feels like, sounds like.
A warehouse full of felonies.
Mr.
Tashjian produced counterfeit goods without the benefit of a license from the copyright holder.
- He smuggled them into the country.
- It has nothing to do with my client.
It does under federal conspiracy laws.
Laundering profits from an illegal enterprise.
That's tax fraud and racketeering.
You gave me immunity.
State, not federal.
You don't have a patch of ground to stand on.
We know Joseph Tashjian killed your brother.
You don't realize my family.
Mr.
Shore, what you don't realize is we are talking about racketeering charges here.
You will forfeit all the proceeds from your illegal activities.
That's everything, sir.
Cars, homes, cash You're blowing smoke, Ben.
You'll never be able to prove which assets were bought with bad money.
We don't have to.
The burden of proof is on your client.
We will strip your family bare.
Ezra took me into the business.
He paid me as much as he could.
I don't blame him.
But it wasn't enough for my family.
So when Joseph Tashjian asked me to help him with his money, I thought, "Who could get hurt?" So your brother Ezra had no idea the business was laundering money? Not for a whole year.
He rarely looked at the books.
He trusted me.
And what did he do when he found out? He was furious that I would risk everything my father had worked for.
He demanded that I stop immediately.
He just didn't understand.
What didn't he understand, Mr.
Shore? He didn't understand that I wanted to stop as well.
That Tashjian wouldn't let me out.
That he had partners dangerous men.
Ezra didn't care.
He wanted to talk to Tashjian himself.
I warned him.
I told him, "Please!" I begged him.
Around 9:00 he got a car and went over to Tashjian's office anyway.
Stone: And what did you do? I followed him.
Please tell the Court what happened at Joseph Tashjian's.
Everything got out of hand.
I tried to calm Joe down, but he was he was ranting like a crazy man.
He blamed me.
Said we were trying to run him out of his business.
Tashjian took a cane.
He was acting like an animal, like a savage.
Again and again, bashing Ezra's head, his body.
There was so much blood and he just kept beating and beating and I just watched.
He killed my brother and I just watched.
Mr.
Shore, why didn't you tell the police? I was scared.
So scared that you would've let three innocent boys go to jail? Those black boys, I thought after a while the charges would be dropped.
And then when they were, then you confessed to the crime.
Why? Because he said he would hurt the family.
He said he would kill my children, Ezra's children.
Mr.
Stone, my family, that's all I have.
No more questions.
Who owns Shore's Jewelry? Ezra.
My father gave him the business.
And how much did Ezra pay you? $60,000 a year.
And how much money did you earn last year from Mr.
Tashjian's money laundering operation? About $140,000.
And your brother wanted to take that away, huh? Must've made you mad.
- Mad enough to kill? - Objection! Withdrawn.
Mr.
Shore, you admitted lying to the police.
- Isn't that right? - Yeah.
- And you lied to your attorney? - Yes.
- And you lied to the District Attorney? - Yes.
And you even lied to the grand jury, isn't that right? I was trying to protect my family.
What did you expect me to do? Do you at all feel responsible for your brother's death? - It's possible.
- You confessed to his murder, didn't you? If it weren't for you, your brother would be alive today.
Isn't that correct, Mr.
Shore? Yes! Robinette: He was very compelling.
What more could they want? If the jury doesn't believe your eyewitness, it's all worthless.
Stone: I think the jury'll understand Isaac's motive for lying.
They'll see he was scared.
Empathy goes a long way.
And they'll also see that he neatly avoided forfeiting all his assets under RICO by testifying.
You don't believe I can win, do you? I believe that you've got a hell of a mountain to climb in your summation.
Isaac's lack of credibility translates into reasonable doubt.
The jury could find Tashjian technically not guilty.
We all know he killed Ezra Shore.
Our knowledge is a long way from proof.
One witness, that's all they have.
The victim's brother.
If you fully believe Isaac Shore is telling the truth, convict.
Why not? Isaac Shore lied to the grand jury, he lied to his family, he lied to the police, to the prosecutors at one point he actually confessed to having killed him.
Of course, he could be telling the truth now.
Sure, it's possible Joseph Tashjian murdered Ezra Shore.
You may even think it's probable.
But in that case, there's only one thing you can do.
Your duty is clear.
You must return a verdict of not guilty because in this system, probably is not good enough.
You must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.
Isaac Shore has told so many lies that it would be unreasonable not to doubt his testimony.
Yes, Isaac Shore should have come forward immediately and said that, "Joseph Tashjian savagely murdered my brother.
" And he should have stood up in the grand jury and said, "Those three boys are innocent.
Joseph Tashjian's the killer.
" But he didn't do that.
Was he immoral? Was he evil? Isaac Shore was terrified.
He'd eyewitnessed an unspeakable horror the brutalization of a family member.
And it was his greatest fear to ever see that happen again.
So why would Isaac Shore concoct a story like this? The fears of Isaac Shore, they don't make his testimony any the less credible.
And they certainly don't make Joseph Tashjian any the less guilty.
Joseph Tashjian is guilty of murder in the second degree.
On the sole count of the indictment, murder in the second degree, how does the jury find? We find the defendant not guilty.
Quiet in the court.
My father is convinced everyone is motivated by fear.
Mine thinks it's greed.
- What do you think? - That Isaac fell victim to both.
I got it! I got it! Man: Calm down! All right, everybody, enough! Are you all right? Is everybody okay?