I am a Killer (2018) s03e05 Episode Script

1
I took my responsibility.
Nothing I can say or do
could bring him back.
I messed up, you know, and
gotta man up
and, you know, own up to your actions.
I've been in prison
over a decade already.
It's wrong. That's messed up.
I was a victim myself in this, you know?
And I can't I can't do nothing about it.
I can't defend myself.
I cannot say nothing.
As far as investigations go,
it was what we call a cluster.
We had three defendants whose stories
continually changed.
All three of them initially claimed
no knowledge of the incident,
no knowledge of a taxicab ride.
We had three guys
who were downright allergic to the truth.
My name is Chucky Phillips,
and I've been sentenced to 20 to life
for murder in the second.
I was born in Syracuse, New York.
Grew up playing sports.
I was definitely a jock in high school.
I was always the captain of the team,
you know, whatever sport I played.
I had dreams of going to the NFL or MLB,
you know.
They were my dreams in those
Be a professional athlete one day.
It wasn't till, well, high school
I started getting in trouble.
About freshman year,
I started hanging out with the wrong guys,
you know.
After school, you know,
running the streets.
You know, chasing after girls.
There was a period I was in selling drugs,
at one point, uh
Teenage boy stuff, you know?
I met Eduardo
I would say maybe 2007.
He dated my sister.
That's how we got cool.
All right.
My name is Eduardo Trinidad,
and I was convicted for murder,
40 years to life.
I was born in Puerto Rico,
and I was also raised over there.
I grew up in a foster home
'cause my mom had passed.
My father wasn't never there for me.
I was really quiet, uh
Always timid.
Um, but
I mean, I wasn't a bad person at all.
I came out here
to the United States for a better life.
I had, like,
work in construction, um, mechanic.
I know plumbing, I know electricity.
Um, they called me a little MacGyver.
I did a little bit of everything around.
My main purpose that same night
was because my son was born that night.
Um, I made it to Syracuse around,
I'd say eleven o'clock, around there,
almost midnight.
So, the visiting hours in the hospitals
are closed. I can't go there.
So, I went to Chu
I went with Chucky to the party.
Um, and like that, that's how I met
the other guy, DeJesus.
I think the party was
about ten to twelve people.
Wasn't no more than that.
In my part, I wanted to enjoy it
'cause, you know, I'm happy.
I was gonna have my newborn son,
and I wanted to celebrate that.
We did a lot of drinking,
uh, mixing liquor,
beer, you know, various types of pills,
ecstasy, Xanax. There was marijuana there.
We was all pretty wasted.
One of the guys had a gun,
you know.
Even at the party,
it was passed around the party.
The guys at the party wanted to hold it.
Everybody wanted to look at it
and touch it.
The gun
Who brung it, I don't know.
I touched it, yeah.
I went outside,
trying to use it, but it didn't work.
Um, after that,
I don't know who who got it.
The owner of the apartment got mad
and started kicking everybody out.
I was sitting
behind the passenger.
DeJesus was in the middle,
and Chucky Phillips was behind the driver.
Nobody was talking.
The only one that was doing the talking
was me 'cause I was on the phone,
talking to, um, my kid's mom
that's in the hospital.
When we get in the city,
someone says, "Make a right, right here."
So we turn off the main road.
And I notice that's not my street.
That's when I said, "Okay,
we must be running
because this is not my street."
You know, just It was gonna be like
not pay for a taxi ride, just run.
You know, young stupid kids' stuff,
you know?
All I heard was the car going slow.
I didn't even know that the gun
was in the cab when we left.
I see Denny take the gun,
and he pulls it on the driver.
So I think maybe he's going to rob him.
The driver grabs the gun from him,
and there's a struggle.
So, I don't know why, I just
I grabbed it, and I yanked it from him.
And
I shot him.
I was opening the door
when I heard a boom.
I ran out of the car
and ran between some houses.
I came back down
to see where was the guys,
and I didn't see the the cab driver.
The car wasn't there anymore.
So, I thought that everything was cool
and I went back to the house.
I went up the hill, went to the house,
and they was already there.
In the morning was
when they came and arrested us.
We all got arrested
and got taken down to the prison.
My name is Ted Kiefer.
I was one of the investigators
involved in the Timothy Gordon homicide.
I believe that this went
from jumping the fare,
to a robbery,
ultimately to a murder.
After being shot,
Mr. Gordon traveled
about one mile.
And I believe he was in some sort
of severe shock
with the trauma to his head,
being shot at close range.
Where he ended up was where,
ultimately, we got involved initially.
The scene of his motor vehicle accident.
Mr. Gordon was traveling
in this direction, towards us.
When he got to the intersection,
he failed to stop at the stop sign,
or turn right or left.
As such, at a high rate of speed,
he traveled across this street,
entered into this driveway here,
colliding with a parked vehicle.
It was a horrible, horrible crash.
And it was all the result
of a senseless crime.
Timmy Gordon was just
out trying to earn a living.
The fare he picked up couldn't have been
more than a twenty dollar bill.
I guess the emotion
is just the true senselessness of it.
The fact that for for a ride home
on a bitter cold night,
it cost this man who's out working,
not sleeping like
the rest of civilization,
it cost him his life
for less than a 20 dollar bill.
It generates a lot of emotion.
When I first laid eyes
on these defendants, all three of them,
I thought to myself,
"These are little boys."
"They're young men at best."
I couldn't believe
how young they appeared.
Mr. Trinidad was known
to our gang violence task force.
They had a file on him.
They knew him by his nickname: Ba La.
Trinidad volunteers
that Chucky Phillips and himself
are active members
of the Latin Kings street gang.
Eduardo Trinidad placed all the blame
on Denny DeJesus.
Chucky Phillips, he did the same.
So we had two people
placing all the blame on Denny DeJesus.
What shocked most of us
investigating the case
was that these three so-called friends,
two of these friends were willing
to throw the third friend under the bus
for something he didn't do.
Cop or no cop, in my opinion,
that's pretty grimy.
Willing to throw
somebody else's life away.
According to Trinidad,
he was merely going to jump the fare,
but at some point during jumping the fare,
he was alerted by Chucky
to come back to the scene.
He could've kept on running.
He got out of the cab and left.
He could have kept running. He didn't.
He turns, he goes back to the cab,
and according to him,
he was going to help
run the cabbie's pockets.
However, there was too much blood
on the cabbie, and at the scene.
So any claims
that Mr. Trinidad might have
about being a passive observer,
according to his own statement, he wasn't.
Felony murder, a classic example
would be the bank robbery.
Let's say multiple individuals
decide to rob a bank.
One individual stays outside
to actively be the lookout.
Other individuals go inside.
The gun is discharged,
and an innocent security guard is killed.
All three people could be liable,
because they had the shared intent
to rob the bank.
So, it is a way
to hold all participants liable
for the death of another
during the course of a felony.
My name is Kerry Buske. I was one
of the assistant district attorneys
assigned to prosecute the case
of the People of the State of New York
versus Chucky Phillips, Denny DeJesus,
and Eduardo Trinidad.
Plea bargaining gets cases resolved.
From the prosecution standpoint,
they won't have to put their victim,
their victim's family, their witnesses
through every single case,
and they can save resources.
In exchange for that guilty plea,
the People will often offer
a reduced sentence, or a reduced charge.
Chucky Phillips did apologize.
He did show a degree of remorse and regret
for this horrific action.
And that, I think,
is reflective in his 20 to life sentence.
I was really surprised that Eduardo
didn't want to try to negotiate something.
Maybe he didn't want to take exactly
what we were offering,
but that he wasn't coming,
trying to negotiate us down.
Even up to the morning of the trial,
I remember going in
for jury selection thinking,
"I think he's probably gonna plea,
'cause the blood of the victim
is on his coat,"
and he said he ran the pockets of the guy.
He was clearly notified
of the potential ramifications
of what could happen
after a conviction by jury.
He chose to not take that plea,
to reject it,
and to take the case to trial.
He's allowed to do that.
It is the People's burden to prove
their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
It was called upon us to do it.
And we did it.
He was convicted of all three counts,
and he was sentenced
by a county court judge.
Why I plead
not guilty instead of plea bargain?
Because I wasn't gonna allow them
to try to have me say I'm guilty
for something I didn't do.
We didn't participate together on it,
you know what I'm saying?
Nobody pointed me
as the guy who pulled the trigger.
Nobody.
I wasn't shocked, um,
when I heard them say guilty, or whatever.
At first, I was I didn't believe it.
I I didn't have the feeling
of believing it.
Hell It's a decade lost already
with my kids.
They're already grown-ups, um
I lost all that part, um
Um, that's pretty something like
messed up, you know?
I feel very sorry
for Timothy Gordon's family and friends.
I did not, at one point
during this recording
hear one mention
of a man's life that was innocently
Um, an innocent man's life
that was brutally taken from him.
He doesn't like the concept
of felony murder.
He doesn't like the fact
that he was held responsible,
even though he wasn't the shooter.
And he is angry at the law
he was prosecuted under.
He mentions his own children.
You know, Timothy Gordon is never
gonna get to have his children,
he's never gonna get
to call home to them.
So this is essentially, in my opinion,
the same Ba La that stood up at sentencing
after a jury found him guilty,
and said, "This is an injustice,
and I'm gonna fight it
till the bitter end."
That's what he's doing. Um
it's just a complete disregard for
the evidence that was presented at trial,
and a complete disregard
for a man's life that was lost.
I'm still trying
to figure out to this day, like
Why?
I can't even tell you the answer, like
I wasn't in my right state of mind. Um
It's hard to explain, because
I think it was a combination
of alcohol and pills mixing, you know?
Worst mistake of my life.
You know, I think about it every day.
You know, not only that I took a life,
but I ruined my life.
The gun was Trinidad's.
He brought it from Utica.
Just the lifestyle,
the lifestyle he lived, you know.
I don't know if he needed it
for protection or he just need
He wanted it,
just the lifestyle he lived.
You know, I I took my responsibility.
My part's played. I pled guilty.
People don't usually plead guilty.
I felt that it was the right thing to do,
you know?
I feel bad for the parties involved,
you know, like the deceased
co-defendants.
Trinidad, his sentence blew my mind
'cause he got 40 to life
for going to trial.
It's just It don't make sense how
if I pled guilty
and he went to trial,
he gets more time than me
for the same crime.
It makes me believe that,
okay, I did the right thing
with taking a plea deal,
because I would have had 40 to life.
There's no question about that.
Denny has always been consistent
that he did not know
there was going to be any shooting.
He had no concept
that they were going to use the gun
that had been played with at the party.
I believe that Denny DeJesus did pay
for what Chucky Phillips
and Eduardo Trinidad did.
However, the fact that Eduardo Trinidad
is serving 40 years to life
and the shooter is serving
20 years to life,
this is one of the big injustices
of the criminal justice system.
I'm not saying that Trinidad is innocent.
I'm saying that his sentence
is hugely disproportionate.
The fact that he was guilty
did not warrant
double the sentence of the shooter.
People are being penalized for
exercising their right to a jury trial.
I do have a deeply ingrained sense
of justice and fairness,
and plea bargaining
goes against some of that grain.
Everybody accused of a crime
in the United States
has the right to a fair trial by a jury.
And, if they are coerced
into pleading guilty
by the fact that if they go to trial
and they get found guilty,
they are going to get
a much harsher sentence
than what they would get
if they plead guilty,
it's it's violating the Constitution.
I believe that equal sentences
for Trinidad and Chucky Phillips
would have been completely appropriate.
Obviously, with plea bargaining
there is going to be some disparity,
but two times as much?
This case is just
shouting
"Injust Unjust result."
The name is Bill Walsh.
I was a county court judge
in Onondaga County for 11 years.
My recollection of Eduardo Trinidad was
that he was fairly aloof during the trial.
I can't remember how much
he participated with his lawyer,
but I had the distinct feeling that
he's what the Irish would call a hard man.
Uh
What I heard during the trial
was just how cold and senseless
the crime itself was.
It just didn't need to happen.
They could have taken the money
and they could have left. But they didn't.
Mr. Gordon picked them up,
took them where they wanted,
did everything that he was supposed to do,
and was rewarded with a bullet
in the back of the head.
And that was just senseless.
Had Mr. Trinidad elected
to plead guilty,
in all likelihood,
his sentence would've been less,
because if he waives his right to appeal,
that ends it.
Two co-defendants
have already pled guilty,
uh, and that would've been the third,
and it would've ended for the family.
They wouldn't have to
have relived it a second time.
And I think that was very damaging
to the family.
The anguish you could see
on their faces was heartbreaking.
And I felt that he could have
spared them that, and he did not.
And he was punished appropriately
with the maximum sentence
permissible under the law.
He was sentenced to the maximum,
under the murder conviction,
of a minimum of 25 years
and a maximum of life in prison,
and he received 15 years on the
criminal possession of a weapons charge.
He could be sentenced consecutively,
which I did.
So, uh that was, uh
It was a pretty sizable sentence.
I base my decision
as to an appropriate sentence
on what I hear during the trial.
If you roll the dice, doesn't pay off,
there's a price to be paid for that.
Chucky with 20, and me with 40 to life.
I don't think that's fair.
My life's been destroyed.
I would have been going with my kids,
trying to enjoy life.
Trying to give my kids things I never had
Uh, parents.
I would have tried to give that to them,
tried to break the cycle,
try to bring a better My life with
with our family, as well.
My earliest
release for parole will be in 2047.
I think I'll be around 70
around that time.
It will be a whole wasted lifetime.
At that time, you won't be able
to manage nothing. What can you do?
Well, it was interesting hearing from him.
I think that was the first time
that I've really heard from him,
but, uh
I would probably expect
that same, uh,
same type of speech from virtually
any defendant that I sentenced
that wound up in jail after being
convicted of a crime by a jury. Uh
He maintains his innocence
and that doesn't come
as much of a surprise, but, uh,
Mr. Trinidad elected to go to trial,
he was found guilty
by a jury of his peers,
and he was sentenced accordingly.
And he absolutely deserves
to be where he is today.
The shooting would not have happened
had not Mr. Trinidad
given Mr. Phillips the gun.
Without that assistance,
there would be no murder.
There would be no murder charge
against either one of them.
It would've simply been a robbery.
But he chose
to assist Mr. Phillips
in the taking of a human life,
and he is just as guilty
as the fellow who pulled the trigger.
And I'm very comfortable
with what I sentenced him to.
I chose to fight for my rights.
And I think everybody has the right
to do that.
The system is broken.
And they're doing to people just like me,
all the time.
All the time. Always.
We got to be real about that.
He goes back
to the cab, and according to him,
he was going to help
run the cabbie's pockets.
However, there was too much blood
on the cabbie and at the scene.
No, it was not about running pockets
or nothing, you know what I'm saying?
I was really worrying about what happened,
you know what I'm saying?
I came running back down.
Yeah, and my intention was,
if there's nobody around
who could help him, I'm gonna help him.
But he was gone.
So I thought it was all right.
I thought nothing really bad happened,
you know what I'm saying?
Until I seen it on the news.
That's when my heart broke for real.
The gun was Trinidad's.
He brought it from Utica.
Just the
lifestyle, the lifestyle he lived,
you know.
I don't know if he needed it
for protection or he just need
He wanted it,
just the lifestyle he lived.
No, um, I did come from Utica.
But not with a weapon.
That weapon was already there.
That got nothing to do with me.
Trinidad's sentence blew my mind 'cause
he got 40 to life for going to trial.
It just shows
the justice system is unfair.
No, it wasn't fair at all.
I just came for my newborn son.
I came for my newborn son.
And didn't made it. Didn't made it, um
I mean
I know a lot of people
They're gonna look at it, like,
lied, or whatever the position is, but
um, I just came
to celebrate my son, to see him,
to hold him in my hand, you know?
At least to accomplish something
that my dad didn't do.
And, um
I guess I got a
I didn't have the opportunity.
I wasn't having enough luck for that.
I destroyed ten years
of my life already on this.
Is this really justice?