All language subtitles for WEB.Of.Death.S01E05.WEBRip.x264-ION10

Kalvon: That night
at the party,

she left the house,
never came back.

[ Siren wails ]
Female Reporter:
NeKeisha Hodges-Hawkins
was shot and killed...

Male Reporter: ...when someone
opened fire on a crowd

after a birthday party.

Shockingly,
no one stepped forward

to identify who shot
and killed NeKeisha.

It said "Live" on my page,
so I pushed it.

If I would not do this
for Keisha,

I would be less than a man.

It moved a community.
It absolutely did.

Kalvon, to me, seemed like

he was not going to stop
until he got an answer.

I´m gonna get justice.

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

Kalvon: We were
a very happy family.

It was just us,
just the five of us.

That´s all we needed.

It was me, Janice, Little Kal,
Kenyatta, and Keisha.

Keisha always pulled
practical jokes on you,

but she also was smart.

That was my heart.

The kind of father
I think I was,

I just wanted
to protect my family.

That´s the only thing
I wanted to do.

♫♫

♫♫

The night of the party,
Kalvon and I were watching TV.

♫♫

Kalvon: NeKeisha came out
her room dressed.

I said, "Where do you think
you going?"

´Cause I´m seeing the time.

I´m like, "Where do you think
you´re going?"

She´s like,
"I´m going to Paw-Paw house."

I said, "I know you lying."

♫♫

And she´s like, "Yes, I am, Dad.

I´m not lying to you."

But I felt it.

I felt it.

♫♫

I don´t think she told us
about the party

because she probably knew her
father wouldn´t want her to go.

Kalvon is very protective,

so it´s easier to get permission
to go to a friend´s house

than it is to get permission
to go to a party.

♫♫

Kalvon: She said, "I love you."
I said, "I love you, too."

But something in my heart,

when she was going down
them stairs,

like, "She´s lying.

You shouldn´t
let her go nowhere."

She left the house
and never came back.

♫♫

The party that we attended
was a birthday party.

Someone posted about it
on social media.

That´s probably how a lot
of people ended up there.

A lot of high schoolers
and classmates,

people older than me, obviously.

I was only like 13 at the time.

Michigan City´s
quite a small town,

so everybody knows everybody.

So you knew everybody
who was there.

When I arrived,
everybody was having fun.

It was, like,
a stoplight party,

is what the theme of it was.

So red lights,
red-colored clothing,

yellow-colored clothing.

It seemed super cool.
It was a great environment.

♫♫

It wasn´t until
people arrived later

that the vibe
started to diminish.

Like, everybody knew
of these people

or knew these people personally,
so they know that

normally trouble follows
wherever they go.

There was a lot less people
dancing and having a good time,

and everybody´s just, like,
looking over their shoulders.

There was an altercation
between a couple of girls.

They started to argue.

And then the guys who walked in
and gave everybody bad vibes,

they also started to argue.

There´s a ton of conflict
that´s happening.

It´s creating a lot of chaos,

and no one wanted to be
responsible for the chaos,

so they make everyone leave.

Making us leave and disperse
created a bigger chaos

because now there´s
a mob of people walking around.

[ Cellphone rings ]

Kalvon: The phone ring.
It was Keisha.

And she´s like, "Mom,
can you come pick me up?"

I´m like, "Where you at?"

She´s like,
"I came to this party.

I don´t want to be here.
Can you come pick me up?"

So, Janice left.

♫♫

Kenyatta: The next thing
I remember is

like eight or nine gunshots
going off.

[ Gun firing, screaming ]

You just hear people screaming
at the top of their lungs.

Something told me
to walk towards the screams.

I recognized the girl
who was screaming.

It was my cousin,
and she was just screaming

at the top of her lungs.

"They shot her.
They shot her in her head."

[ Screaming continues ]

And as I continued to walk
is when I see my sister.

She was laying on the ground.

And that´s when I realized
that she --

she was the one
who had been shot.

She was still breathing,

but it was, like,
she was gasping for air.

And I just knelt down
right beside her.

And I held her hand,
I held her head.

♫♫

[ Siren wailing ]

Ashley:
Officers were dispatched

to the area of
Krueger Memorial Hall,

where they was told that
shots were being fired

and that there was
possible injuries.

When officers arrived,
they came to the scene

and noticed that there was
a juvenile female on the ground.

Also, they were told
that it´s possible

another victim that was
on his way to the hospital.

Janice: When I got there,
there was an ambulance.

By the ambulance, on the ground,
there was just a white sheet.

And I knew that she was
under that white sheet,

so I just went there,
and I moved the sheet,

and I just stared at her,
and I cried, and I shook my head

´cause I´m like, "See, I told
you anything can happen."

And she was --
she was on the ground.

♫♫

Then I had to get myself
together so I could call Kalvon

and tell him
that she had been shot.

And who wants to make that call?

Like, that´s the worst call
to have to make ever.

Kalvon: I´m sitting down, my
phone ring, and it was Janice.

I picked it up.
She said, "Keisha dead."

♫♫

So...

This girl just left this house.

I was like, "This is all on me,"

I said, "Because
I should have stopped her,

and I knew she was lying."

♫♫

♫♫

NeKeisha used to bake.

She would bake for holidays.

She would see me baking.

And then she wanted
to learn to bake.

And then she just started
baking cakes on her own.

When NeKeisha was born,
Kalvon adored her.

He was scared to hold her.

She was tiny, so he was like,

"No, I don´t want to hold her.

I might break her."
He just kept saying that.

"I might break her.
I don´t want to do it."

But he was very cute.

Kalvon: That was my heart.

That was our baby.

Keisha was the main one.

Like, if she was to go spend
the night at somebody house,

the house would be quiet with
me, Janice,

Little Kal, and Yatt.

But when Keisha come home,

it was stir crazy.

Like, Keisha was fun.
Like, she was silly.

My relationship with my sister
was, like, we were inseparable.

She was an amazing friend.

She had a loving spirit,
very empathetic.

♫♫

Janice: She was my best friend
´cause she was my first born

and she was my only daughter.

We did everything together.
We were very close.

♫♫

When I bake, I think of holidays

and how she would take cakes
to other people´s families

like her friends´ families.

So I think of that.

I enjoy baking
and getting that good memory.

So baking, it gives me
a little peace.

♫♫

Female Reporter:
NeKeisha Hodges-Hawkins

was shot and killed
during a party in Michigan City.

Ashley:
Whenever a offense is committed,

especially in this magnitude,

the first thing that
police officers would do

is try to get as much
information as possible.

It´s pretty much
information gathering.

So you want to try to get
as much trace evidence

like a hair, fingerprints,
shell casings,

anything that can directly
link you to the perpetrator.

[ Police radio chatter ]

It´s my understanding that
there was some feuding going on

between some of
the guys that were there.

A rivalry between
two groups of teenagers

from opposite sides of town.

What contributes to the violence
that plays out in Michigan City?

It´s the accessibility of
firearms, for one.

When it´s among young people,

it´s the fact that circumstances
combine youth and immaturity

and an undeveloped mind
with a deadly weapon.

Gang members are not going
to talk to the police.

Of course, that´s an issue.

Male Reporter: Dozens of people,
perhaps more than a hundred,

were here and probably
witnessed the shooting.

Ashley:
There was, I would say,

anywhere from 100 to 150
high-school-aged children there.

I spoke to several people.

Everything was
sort of convoluted.

The stories were all over
the place based on

where they actually were
when the shots rang out.

One thing kept coming up.

Cameron Kent,
he was one of the party goers.

There was witnesses
that came forward

and said that they actually did
witness him shoot.

When the party let out,
he actually walked down the hill

where multiple other
party goers were.

He pulled out a gun,
and he shot into the air.

[ Gun firing, screaming ]

Cameron Kent had been accused
by one of those injured

who believed Cameron Kent had
been responsible for his injury.

Ashley: Cameron Kent,

he´s a person of interest
for us at this point,

and so we talked
to him extensively,

and eventually he gave up
where his gun was.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

Cameron was the only person
identified as

shooting a gun that evening.

So he was ultimately charged
with NeKeisha´s death.

Kalvon: Cameron used to come
to our house all the time

and play with Keisha
and Yatt and little Kal.

Janice: That night
when she was murdered,

Cameron came to me and he hugged
me and he said he was sorry.

And I didn´t think
anything of it

because I knew that
she and he were friends.

And then when they said
that he was arrested,

I´m like, "No way.

I mean, it couldn´t
have been him."

♫♫

Espar: It wasn´t for a period
of perhaps two-and-a-half months

when the ballistics report
came back

and a comparison of
the firearm that was recovered

was compared to the bullet

that was recovered
from NeKeisha´s body

and found not to be a match,

that the weapon that
the young man had that night

could not have been the weapon

that claimed
the life of NeKeisha.

And those charges
were dismissed.

♫♫

So that was a pivotal
turning point, obviously,

in the investigation

because now you´re looking
for another shooter.

[ Gun firing, screaming ]

You wanna cut through here?
Janice: Yeah, we can.

Y´all go ahead ´cause
I don´t know where I´m going.

Right where
that purple flower is.

When Cameron was released,
I told the police,

"Y´all need to find
who did this."

Oh, that one
should go in the back.

Huh?
That big one.

Kalvon: I just wanted to know
who killed my baby

and what was going on.

♫♫

A parent is not supposed
to bury their child.

A child is supposed to bury
their parents.

♫♫

She ain´t even get to live.

4 days before
her 18th birthday,

she get a casket
for her birthday.

What a present.

♫♫

♫♫

We´re two-and-a-half months
into an investigation

that had its only lead
turn out to be a dead end

and wrong, flat-out wrong.

Law enforcement had to return
to the public.

But there is a reluctance
from the community

to get involved
in police investigations

when violence is the crime.

They could be
scared of retaliation.

The kids were unwilling
to come forward

because, you know,
in the Black community,

they don´t believe in snitching.

Kalvon: The kids´ parents
told them to stay out of it.

That´s what they did, so they´re
saying nobody would talk.

And when others aren´t stepping
forward, as far as they know,

maybe there´s a little bit of,
why should I?

The decision, I think,
was made that

until more evidence is developed
and more evidence comes forward,

the case will remain
under investigation

and leads will be followed
as they´re developed.

But, unfortunately, those leads
were not forthcoming.

Those leads dried up.

At that time, law enforcement
was back to square one.

♫♫

[ Cellphone rings ]

♫♫

Kalvon: Years after,
we was lost, super lost.

I was angry and couldn´t grieve.

Kenyatta: This should have
brought us closer, if anything,

so that we could have each other
to rely on.

But it´s like
it pushed us apart.

♫♫

My family used to be
like this,

and when she got killed,
it just went like that.

Just all separate, everything.

So family was dead.

Wasn´t no such thing as family
no more.

It ruined us.

Kalvon was very depressed,
so he didn´t really talk.

He didn´t really
come out of his room.

I just wanted to just lay there
and wallow in my sorrow.

I just wanted to sleep.

All I thought about was Keisha.

Kenyatta: My dad felt like
all hope was lost.

Instead of accepting
and forgiving

what had already happened,

he dwelled so much on the past.

´Cause in his mind,
in his heart, he failed us,

he failed NeKeisha,
he couldn´t protect her.

He couldn´t save her from what
he had felt all along,

you know, "This is what
I was trying to stop.

That´s why I was so tough.

That´s why I was so,
you know, strict.

Because this very thing
is what I was trying to stop."

And he wasn´t able to stop it.

♫♫

Kenyatta: But he still
had other kids.

I felt a ton of resentment,
actually.

But seeing my mom being
this fortress, this rock,

a woman of strength,

showed me that I need to
make sure that

I am being a man of strength

in being a support system
for my family.

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫

Stebbins: I was in
my senior year in college

with my first degree.

All of a sudden, somebody makes
a slam page on Facebook.

So, a slam page
is like an anonymous page

where people are writing things
about different people,

but you don´t know
who´s putting them up there.

[ Cellphone chimes ]

Kalvon: I just heard "ding,"

then I heard "ding,"
then I heard "ding."

I´m like, "The hell?
Who´s texting me?"

I´m looking at the phone,
I´m like, "Keisha?"

So I start reading.

And they was talking
about her death.

♫♫

Man: And what were
the messages saying?

Um, they was like,
"Y´all need to quit playing.

Y´all know who killed Keisha,"
and all that stuff.

I was like, "Well, hold up.
What?"

♫♫

That´s when they started
dropping, like, names

and, "These clothes were worn,

I know this gun was there,"

kind of giving, like,
"hints" of who killed Keisha.

♫♫

Kalvon: But they was
trying to erase it.

But before they erased it,
someone screenshotted them

and sent it to me.

♫♫

Well, I get up immediately,

and I go to the police station,
and I showed them.

I said, "Look at this."

And they had
no care in the world.

Whatever information
he´s getting, you know,

that is going to be
third-party information.

It´s going to be hearsay.

The police have to find a source
and see what they witness

at the time
that the incident occurs.

Kalvon: The next day, I went
back in the police station.

I said,
"You´re not going to help?"

He said, "What did we tell you?"

I said, "Last warning.

And I´m gonna ask one more time.

You´re not going to help?"

I didn´t know how to do
Facebook Live at all,

because I haven´t been
on Facebook in so long.

Like, I was depressed.

So, it said "Live" on my page,
so I pushed it,

and it said "Three, two, one."

I said, "In Hollywood,
that mean action."

[ Voice breaking ]
I´m going live out here

at the Michigan City
Police Department

trying to get help
for my daughter.

These people won´t help me, man.

These people right here.

I go in here,

they talking about
my daughter´s murder online,

and these police
still won´t help me.

They ran me out of the
police station last night,

told me they can´t
do nothing for me, man.

They killed my daughter

four days before
her [bleep] birthday, man.

I had to bury her
before her 18th birthday.

And these police
will not help me.

I got all the screenshots,

and they still don´t want to do
nothing about it.

I´m not talking to Detective
[Bleep] no more, at all.

´Cause he do not help.

Somebody gonna help me.

I learned about the Facebook
Live from a classmate.

I was in school
when this was going on.

And somebody was like,

"Yeah, your dad´s
on Facebook right now."

I´m like, "What are
you talking about?"

I´m gonna stand out here
every single day.

I don´t care.

Kenyatta: That was not
the same person that I knew

a couple weeks ago.

Somebody gonna help me.

They talking about my
daughter´s murder online, man.

Live, direct,
and they think it´s a joke.

For him to, like, one minute
just be in his room,

it´s super dark in there,

to, like, now marching,
being outside, speaking more,

actually showing emotional,
like, energy,

it was amazing.

This is crazy, man.

And I´m gonna keep
my camera rolling.

Janice: I was excited that
he found the strength

to get up and fight.

It´s ridiculous.

Brother can´t sleep.

I can´t even work.

This is [bleep]

But I was scared because,

"Okay, you are messing with
the police."

But I´m like, "Okay, well, maybe
this is gonna go somewhere."

Man: We´re here for you,
brother.
[ Car horn honks ]

Alright, bro.
Appreciate you, man.

♫♫

It went from me going
to the police station

all the time by myself

to 85,000 people
watching it live.

They was hitting our phones
from Dubai and everywhere.

Over 150 kids see
my daughter get killed,

and their punk-ass parents
take them down there

and tell them
not to say nothing.

But what if it was
your [bleep] kid?

I had to bury my daughter
on her 18th [bleep] birthday.

Somebody gonna help me.

People are, like,
actually responding,

they´re wanting to help
and everything else,

and I´m like, "This has to
do something, right?"

♫♫

I couldn´t even cry
when I seen my daughter

with that hole in her head.

I couldn´t even cry when
I seen my goddamn daughter

laying in the [bleep] casket.

I ain´t cried for a long time.

But yesterday,
all that [bleep] on Facebook,

now, that [bleep]
made me cry, man.

That done opened up
the [bleep] wound again.

While I´m ranting and raving
and going off,

and the next thing I know,

the whole front
of the police department

was filled with people.

I got people out here
supporting me.
[ Car horn honking ]

It moved a community.
It absolutely did.

And it was a remarkable thing

to see groups assembling
outside the police station

in an effort
to call out for justice,

for a more thorough
investigation,

to breathe life into a case
that had gone cold.

Y´all just don´t know the pain
this [bleep] is.

Can´t sleep at nighttime.

When you finally close
your [bleep] eyes,

you see your daughter
laying on the ground

and they covering her up.

And she´s screaming,
"Dad, help!"

Help with what?

How can I help?
So I know how I´mma help.

I´mma come down here
and try to get justice.

Matter of fact, I´m sorry,
I´m gonna get justice.

There´s no way they´re gonna
sweep this under the rug.

There´s no way
they´re gonna be able to.

Too many people are asking
too many questions now.

Well, here y´all go.

Somebody with South Bend News
said they on they way [scoffs]

and I´mma tell it all.

In 2016,
I was fresh out of college.

I was at my first reporting job.

I remember seeing
Kalvon´s Facebook Live.

There was so much
raw emotion there

and grief and sorrow and anger.

And I wanted to talk to him.

My news director
at the time said,

"If you really want to do this,
go an hour away

and just get back in time
to get it on air."

Every day, you and I click
through our Twitter feeds,

scroll on Facebook,
or post photos on Instagram.

In some cases, social media
is giving victims a voice.

NeKeisha died at Krueger
Memorial Park in Michigan City.

Five years of no answers,

her dad always wondering
who killed his daughter.

They was like,
"There´s nothing we can do,"

so I went outside and found out
how to go live on Facebook.

Schultz: That video went viral.

It´s online.
They talking about it.

Kalvon, to me, seemed like
he was not going to stop

until they got an answer.

And I don´t think he can
think of anything else

besides NeKeisha

and besides what
was happening with her case.

I´m a proud father,

and if I would not do this
for Keisha,

I would be less than a man.

Only thing I want is some help.

Period. Point blank. Help me.

[ Voice breaking ]
That´s all I ask,

is for some [bleep] help.

I want some help.

Social media proved to be
a very valuable tool.

Good morning, Facebook.

I´m at it again.

I got people
coming from the La Porte

and everywhere else helping.

Well, my daughter got killed.

This is going out
to my daughter´s killer.

While y´all out there
playing checkers,

I´m playing chess.

Sooner or later,
I´mma get my justice,

and that´s gonna be checkmate.

It led to the chief at the time

to task new detectives
with the case.

This is why we´re having
this rally today,

because we need eyewitnesses.

We need people to come forward
and say, "I was there."

You may have been young
back then, and I get it.

You´re a little older now,
a little stronger now.

Do you think you can give
Detective Ashley,

Detective Painter, some
information about what happened?

Jillian Ashley and Anna Painter,

they did what needed
to be done --

not pick up where
the investigation left off,

but started over.

Ashley:
I´ve never done that before,
where I actually took a case

and just said,
"Let´s start over."

And along with
Detective Painter,

we decided to just
pull out case files.

What I pulled out
from this case file --

all of the evidence that was
actually collected in 2011.

So, this right here,
and I can feel the weight of it,

and this is
the automatic pistol.

And it says here

"A small, multicolored, black,
brown semi-automatic pistol."

And then it compared
its serial number on it.

And it said,
"Collected from Cameron Kent."

Can you see that?

Our thought process
was starting afresh.

For us, it was taking
each person´s statement,

and I think it was
like over 140,

and just re-listening to them.

This is a bunch of interviews
of all of the ones who were

interviewed back in 2011.

We tried to re-interview
just about everybody

that was actually on scene.

At the time of
the investigation in 2011,

there was two witnesses,

Skyiesha Pender
and Michael Cooper.

Michael Cooper pinpointed
who the shooter was.

♫♫

Michael Cooper
came forward to say,

"I have information
about her death,

about who was responsible.

It was a young man
whose name is Charles Gerron.

He had a gun that night.

I saw him shoot into the crowd.

And he is the one
that´s responsible for

NeKeisha´s death."

Ashley:
But Michael Cooper´s statement

was not corroborated
at the time.

Charles Gerron was not somebody
that was unknown to police.

There was previous law
enforcement encounters with him,

even at the young age of 16.

And Skyiesha Pender
was at the party.

She heard the shots being fired,

but then she didn´t give
any more real information

that could be useful.

♫♫

In 2016, Skyiesha Pender

gave that same statement
who she was with,

but then trying to get her
to talk from there

was a little challenging
at first,

but when she began to
actually talk,

she gave a very,
very useful statement.

In 2011,
she was in a relationship

with Charles Gerron.

She said that
she was at the party

and that he showed up
at the party,

and that after
the party broke up,

50 to 75, 100 kids left

and poured out
into the parking lot

and into the street
and down the street.

And she said she heard the sound

of what she thought
were firecrackers

at a distance, down the hill,

followed by three loud,
close sounds of gunfire

that she looked directly at
and saw Charles Gerron

shooting into the crowd
down the hill,

and then turn and run
the other direction.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

She recalled him
calling her afterwards.

She remembered just telling him
it was over.

And at that moment,

the investigation had
what it didn´t have before,

which was
a corroborating witness

to another witness´ testimony.

♫♫

Ashley: So, after Skyiesha
gave us a statement,

we had enough to get
an arrest warrant for Charles.

Although we lacked the kind of
evidence that we desire,

that being some other
physical evidence in the case --

get the gun,

something physical
to tie him to the crime --

we didn´t have that,

but I knew we had
great testimonial evidence.

We had two people whose
statements are being provided

independent of each other.

And for that reason,

charges were filed
for the crime of murder.

♫♫

Hey, you guys,
Jessi Schultz here with WSBT.

I´m in Michigan City today.

I´m actually right in front
of the police station

because an arrest
has finally been made

in the NeKeisha Hodges-Hawkins
case.

I couldn´t believe
that they found someone,

and that it only took a month
after his Facebook Live.

I´d like to thank every seven --

all y´all,
the 17,000-plus viewers

that shared this story
to get some help for us.

So, I spoke with
NeKeisha´s parents today,

who told me that they just
have had a weight

lifted off of their shoulders.

Her father actually told me that
last night was the first night

that he´s had a full night
of sleep in five years.

For them to say that
they made an arrest today...

Best Christmas present
you could ever expect.

Charles and them,
they used to shoot

over out here all the time.

They were bad.

They used to run around and

shoot and terrorize
the community.

Like, people in the community
were scared of them.

That´s probably why they were
reluctant to come forward.

Ashley: Just because
you have an arrest,

that does not mean a conviction.

So an arrest itself is great.

But now you want to see it

actually go through
the court system,

and how does that turn out?

♫♫

Espar: When the two detectives
went out to where

Michael Cooper
was now living and working

and let him know that
the case had been charged,

they were not prepared for
the conversation that followed.

Ashley: He was really reserved.

He said,
"I don´t remember a lot."

That´s just a way of saying,
"I don´t want to be involved."

Espar: Michael recanted
his previous statement,

denied that that truly happened.

He said that, "I made it up.

I told the investigators
what they wanted to hear.

I told you what happened
five-and-a-half years ago.

You didn´t think what I had
to say was strong enough.

Don´t bother me now.
I´ve moved on."

And so the detectives came back

to the two assigned prosecutors
in the case

to say, "We´ve got a problem."

The loss of
a corroborating witness

was devastating at the time
to my deputies.

It was, in their mind,

a case that couldn´t be proven
at trial.

That one witness, uncorroborated
by any other witness,

who didn´t share her truth
for five-and-a-half years,

just wasn´t going to be enough.

And I understood that.

That´s where this
turn of events had taken us,

essentially
back to the beginning.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

We´re then forced to
engage in a conversation

that the defense
were looking for

and talking about a crime
far less serious

than the crime of murder.

♫♫

Do we strike the plea agreement?

Do we dismiss the case and wait
for more evidence to develop,

other witnesses to come forward?

Perhaps we´ll recover the gun

that in five-and-a-half years
had never been found.

The decision was made for a plea
to criminal recklessness.

It was the crime that
they thought they could prove.

Ashley: Kalvon told me,

and said, "They´re trying
to do a plea deal."

And that was
really shocking to me

because once
I presented that case,

I felt we had enough to be able
to prosecute successfully.

As an investigator, we never
really want anything pled out,

because we understand that
that means

that the suspect
is not going to get

what we believe
the suspect deserves.

I´m sure that the family
felt the same way.

[ Exhales sharply ]

They talk about some
[bleep] justice.

They play with us
for five-and-a-half years.

It´s like my baby´s life
ain´t worth [bleep]

This [bleep] ain´t over
till I say it´s over, man.

♫♫

Schultz: Justice --
It´s written on the walls

of the La Porte County
Courthouse in Michigan City.

But it´s something that
NeKeisha Hodges-Hawkins´ dad

is scared his daughter
will never get.

My daughter ain´t fittin´
to die in vain,

and she ain´t fittin´ to be
no statistic,

I guarantee you that.

Schultz:
Hawkins and his family

thought their agony
was almost over,

but Gerron entered a guilty plea

to a lesser charge of criminal
recklessness this week.

Hawkins says
his fight for justice,

the fight he thought
would finally come to an end,

is now far from over.

There´s no reason
why my daughter´s murder

should be unsolved,

and 100 to 150 people
seen her get killed.

Kalvon and family and support
within the community

called for the court
to reject the plea agreement

and to let us take
our chances at trial.

The judge did not accept
the plea agreement,

and as was my decision,
we did not dismiss the case

and await more evidence.

It was going to be a tall order
to convince a jury

with only one witness.

But it could be enough.

♫♫

Espar: The most pressing need
to prove this case

was to meet with Michael Cooper,

the other strong witness who had
given the statement in 2011.

So we subpoenaed him to produce
himself for an interview.

So Michael was ordered
to show up in Indiana,

and he didn´t.

How we got him to come around
was unconventional,

but it was necessary.

We was able to detain him
on something really minor

and bring him back to Indiana.

Once he was actually in Indiana,
we went to speak with him.

♫♫

Espar:
When I sat down with him,

I said, "I´ve seen
your statement.

I know what you said
five-and-a-half years ago.

I think I know
what you must be thinking --

That you told what you knew,
nobody listened,

nobody believed you,

because nobody did
anything about it.

But we´re here
and we believe you.

And we´d like to have
that conversation with you."

In that process,
he decided, "I´ll do it."

He´ll talk.

Espar: He told us about
what he saw that night

and what he knew about the death
of NeKeisha and who killed her.

But the case still needed
physical evidence

that may tie Charles Gerron
to the crime.

♫♫

We never had
the strongest of cases.

One of the problems in the case

was that the shooter
was identified

as wearing a plaid
or checkered shirt,

but the defendant didn´t
have that clothing on

that July evening in 2011

when he was being interviewed
by law enforcement.

Ashley: His initial interview
in 2011,

I remember him coming
in a bright green outfit.

Really noticeably green.

We learned of some
very good evidence

in the preparations for trial.

I´ll never forget it. This was
Friday before a Monday trial.

♫♫

As we were preparing
the case for trial

and I´m meeting with,
for the first time, Skyiesha,

just as a sort of
desperate hope,

not with any real expectation,

I asked her if she took
any pictures that night

on her phone,
and she told me she didn´t.

And one of the facts
that I knew of the case

was at the birthday party
was this booth

that had been set up
for the kids

to have their pictures taken.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

I asked her if she had taken
any photographs with Charles

in the booth, and she said,
yes, that she had.

"Do you have those pictures?"

And she said, "No,
I threw it out that night."

"I went down to where
NeKeisha was dying,

and I knew that it was
Charles Gerron who did this."

And she said,
"I threw the pictures down.

I just threw them down."

And then I remembered

seeing in my review of
the crime scene photographs...

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

...an envelope

that just a fraction of
the photograph could be seen.

♫♫

And so I quickly called
the lead investigator.

I asked her to meet me
at the police station,

at the evidence room.

We pulled out what was
in the evidence bag,

an envelope
with photographs in there.

And the defendant was there.

He had plaid, black-and-white
or gray clothing.

And in that moment in time,
the physical evidence

corroborating the testimony
of those two key witnesses

was added to the evidence
of the trial or of the case.

You can call it a smoking gun

in a case where
there was no gun found

because it was
just that powerful.

♫♫

It was clear, it was strong,

and it was proof
beyond a reasonable doubt

that Charles Gerron
killed NeKeisha Hawkins.

♫♫

Schultz: The courtroom
was packed on both sides,

both with the Gerron family
and the Hodges-Hawkins family.

You could feel
the tension in the air.

♫♫

I didn´t miss a day
of the trial, not one day.

I was there early every day
that we had trial.

The courtroom was emotional.

The Hodges-Hawkins family

had to relive
the worst day of their lives

every single day of that trial.

That was the roughest thing
ever in life.

We cried in court.

It was hard,
but it was therapeutic.

Schultz: I can tell you that
Charles Gerron was stone cold.

He didn´t show much emotion.

He showed not an ounce,
not one centimeter, of remorse.

He laughed about it in court.

John Espar tried really hard
to prove that, you know,

Gerron had a gun beforehand.

He had a gun before the party.

And he brought witnesses
up to say,

"Were you there prior to that

when you saw
Charles Gerron with a gun?"

And they said yes.

♫♫

Prosecutors will try
to convince them

that Gerron knowingly fired
the gun that killed NeKeisha.

Charles Gerron´s attorney
was really trying to prove

that the witness testimony
was not credible.

♫♫

Skyiesha Pender
dated Gerron in 2011.

She says the night Hawkins died,
she saw Gerron with a gun,

and then later on that night,
she saw Gerron shoot that gun

into a crowd of people.

Espar: The defense that they
put forward was to argue

that in our system of justice,

this quantity of evidence
or this quality of evidence

is not enough

to convict the person
beyond a reasonable doubt.

Kalvon and Janice were scared
that they weren´t going to get

the verdict that
they had been fighting for.

♫♫

When I heard all the evidence
and the jury went to deliberate,

I honestly wasn´t sure.

I thought it could
go one way or the other

if it was guilty or not guilty,

because they both presented
a pretty valid case.

Espar: That´s probably the most
anxious time for a prosecutor,

is waiting for the jury
to come back

when you´ve done
everything you can do

and now
it´s in somebody else´s hands.

So you´re waiting.

♫♫

♫♫

And they said he was guilty.

And my knees buckled.

I was like [exhales deeply]

On my birthday.

A jury has found Charles Gerron
guilty of murder

for the shooting death
of NeKeisha Hodges-Hawkins.

I did see members of the
NeKeisha Hodges-Hawkins family

dip their heads
and silently begin to sob.

Charles Gerron seemed calm
through it all.

Kalvon: I did this for you,
baby girl.

This is the best
birthday present ever.

She watched over me
the whole time,

through everything.

She can sleep,
and I can sleep.

Happy birthday to me.

♫♫

Espar: They´re never going to
get their daughter back.

The most we could do for them in
that moment of time happened --

finally had happened.

They were finally at a place
where they might begin to heal

from the unthinkable loss
that they have suffered.

I love you.
I love you.

I´m going live out here

at the Michigan City
Police Department.

When Kalvon utilized
Facebook Live to his advantage,

it was a relatively newer
thing to do.

I don´t think he even knew
what he was doing

or the power
that he was harnessing

when he pressed "Live."

And it worked.

Six years of fighting,

and it came to an end.

[ Cellphone chimes ]

Keisha can sleep.

Now I can sleep.

♫♫

Kenyatta: Justice was served,
and I was happy.

Happy that my family
could now heal.

♫♫

Justice being served

helped me forgive myself
for knowing that

there was nothing
I could have possibly done.

Now I don´t have to
put on a front anymore.

I can actually try to
work through my sadness

and my depression.

I´m never going to get
my childhood back

and those lessons,

but now I can actually process

in a very healthy manner.

♫♫

Janice: That night,
I sat at the end of the street,

and I watched them clean
the blood off of the street.

I watched them do everything
that they needed to do

pertaining to her.

And I made peace with the fact
that she was gone.

So I´ve had that sense of peace
since she´s been gone,

because I know that, one day,
I´ll see her again.

I do not believe that Kalvon
has found the peace that I have,

because it´s hard for him
to make peace

with the fact that she´s gone.

When you lose a kid, there is
no such thing as closure.

It´s just dealing with it
day by day.

Sometimes we talk about Keisha.

Just all the silly stuff
that she used to do.

That´s how we remember.

We can be doing
something in here,

and one of us will
bust out laughing,

like, "Man,
that girl was crazy."

And we´ll just laugh.
We´ll laugh about it.

We might end up crying,
but we laugh.

I miss the laughter.
She was so goofy.

It´s very sad not being able to
see what she would have become.

Kalvon: Could you imagine her
as a relationship counselor?

Every client she had
probably would have broke up.

[ Laughs ]

That would have been
hilarious, but...

[ Laughs ]

Remember when she used
to play basketball?

She was on the court,
and she had nice shoes.

She played.
She did have nice shoes.

She could play volleyball,
though.

She was amazing
at volleyball.

Shortest person in the world
could play volleyball.

I don´t think he sees
the magnitude of what he´s done,

but that´s ´cause he´s
in his head all the time.

The moment he gets out
of his head,

he can just see
how amazing he is.

I was trying to give you
the thumbs up.

Kenyatta:
He took his circumstances

and literally changed them.

If that´s not inspiration,
I truly don´t know what is.

[ Laughter ]

♫♫

♫♫

♫♫