Original subtitles

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate

equally important groups. The police who investigate crime, and the district

attorneys who prosecute the offenders.

These are their stories.

I know, buddy.

I know it's cold.

Hello?

Funny, a room at the inn.

Yeah, I'm good with that, though.

I'm good, too.

The door to the exterior was pried open, too.

Look at this. All right.

Female, from the looks of it. Not a very tall one if she could fit inside this

suitcase. No, definitely on the shorter side.

Didn't find any ID. Based on decomposition and the amount of

I'd say she's been down here a long time.

Like months, not weeks.

Jesus, somebody just left her down here to rot? I can't take this no more, man.

Give me the smell stuff. I'll change my mind. Thank you.

We need to talk to whoever owns the apartment the storage unit 9F belongs

It's going to be tricky.

9F is owned by a man named Zhang Dao.

Why is that tricky?

Well, he owns the unit, but he doesn't live in it. His referral address is in

Shanghai. As far as I know, he's never even set foot in the place.

So the owner rents it out?

No. It's just sitting there, unoccupied. It's true for most of the units.

Rich dudes from other countries bought them all up.

You're telling me this giant brand new building is basically empty?

I guess it's a good investment. Or tax shelter, or I don't know.

Must be a smart money move somehow, because they're all doing it. A housing

crisis brought to you by conspicuous consumption.

So who would have access to the basement storage units?

We've currently got about 27 residents actually living in the units, so any of

them, obviously.

But honestly, could have been anyone.

Narrows it down?

Yeah, word spread around the neighborhood about the building being

people keep breaking into the basement.

Got any cameras down there? Of course.

I can get you the footage.

Yeah, we'll need everything you got for the last few months.

The system only stores the data for a couple of weeks.

Sorry, guys.

The body was in rough shape.

She's been in that suitcase for four or five months at least.

The cause of death appears to be a cervical fracture between the C1 and C2

vertebrae. Somebody snapped their neck. Uh -huh.

Based on everything I'm seeing, I'm comfortable ruling this a homicide.

Were you able to ID her?

The skin on her fingers was too decomposed to get a clean print.

I ran her DNA through the system, but no luck.

What can you tell us about her? She was Caucasian.

Analysis of the pubic symphysis, cranial sutures, and sternal rib ends tells me

she was post -puberty, but not by much.

Likely in her late teens or early twenties.

Any distinct characteristics that might make her easier to identify?

She did have a tattoo on her left forearm.

The fluorescent spectrometer was able to pick out the pigments. You can just

make out the letters.

MCF.

Confirmed by the Chinese embassy that Zhang Dao, the owner of the storage unit

where the body was found, has never actually traveled with the United

Similar to the building security system, street cams in the area only store data

for two months.

There's no footage from around the time of the murder. What about forensics?

The techs were able to pull a partial print off the suitcase.

Okay, wonderful.

Actual evidence.

But no hits in the fist, though. There's always a chance that the print belongs

to our Vic.

Significantly less wonderful.

Okay, so we don't know who our victim is, we have no suspects, and we have no

leaks. It's a tough one, though.

Start with identifying our Vic.

A young girl missing for that long? Somebody must have noticed.

We get about 13 ,000 missing person reports annually, and that's just for

York City. Statewide, the number is way higher.

The majority are between 15 and 25 years old. Same age as our Vic.

So, looking for a needle in a haystack.

It might not be that bleak. Most cases are resolved quickly, and it's common

one person to rack up multiple reports.

And you get a lot of repeat customers?

Kids run away from home, get found, returned, then do it again.

It's hard to stay disappeared.

Given today's technology, the number of current open cases is much smaller, only

a couple hundred.

Is it possible to search based on what we know about our Vic?

The reports are all streamlined into a database we can filter. You said she was

in her teens or early 20s?

Correct. White with black hair and a tattoo on her arm.

Right arm or left?

Left.

Eight hits.

Do you know what the tattoo was of? The letter's MCF.

That one's a flower.

That one's a butterfly.

A zodiac sign.

No dice.

Said a lot of missing persons are reported multiple times. Is there any

run the same search but on closed cases?

Hold the shot.

Got her.

Lucia Velasco, 18, former gymnastics phenom from Queens.

Her birthday was last month, so she was 17 when she was murdered.

Ran away from home twice last year.

Who filed the report?

A guy named Craig Valparaiso. Yeah, he was Lucia's gymnastics coach.

And according to state records, Valparaiso took full custody of her when

mother, Maureen Claire Velasco, died three years ago.

MCF. Sounds like Lucia was trying pretty hard to get away from this guy.

We've been missing for over five months. He didn't call it in this time.

Find out why.

Stay focused.

Stay focused.

Tighten up your form.

You're losing it.

You think that was acceptable?

You think that's how you win?

I think we can ease up there a little bit, Chief.

What do you want?

We'd like to talk to you about Lucia Velasco.

I'm not interested.

Let's do it again, and this time actually try.

I'm sorry? We said we'd like to talk to you as if you had a choice.

We're homicide detectives. Lucia is dead.

What?

So why don't we go downtown?

We could chat there.

I swear I didn't kill Lucia.

I could never.

You what?

You what?

Cared about her? Because from what I hear, you didn't seem too concerned when

two cops showed up and mentioned her name.

I thought they were going to say she got in some trouble, that she needed help

with bail or something. I didn't know she was dead. If you didn't know she was

dead, why didn't you report her missing?

You're her legal guardian.

She'd been gone at least five months. Because I've already been through that

circus twice.

She... She didn't want to abuse me. She kept running away.

She took off again about six months ago. I figured... Figured what?

You'd let her fend for herself?

She was going to be 18 soon.

And then she could do whatever she wanted anyway.

What were you doing?

That made her want to leave so badly.

I know what you're implying.

There was nothing like that going on.

I never touched her.

Not in anger.

Not in... Anyway.

Well, it's very unusual for a gymnast coach to end up her guardian. I started

coaching her when she was nine.

When her mom died, no other family stepped up, so I took her in.

Quite the hero.

It's certainly not what I planned.

And she was talented.

But by the time she took off, I wasn't even coaching her anymore.

Well, what happened?

Did you guys have a falling out?

Two years ago, she slipped on the uneven bars and ripped her shoulder out of the

socket.

Tore labor.

Her career was over before it started.

Fake, cruel little joke.

She was messed up after that.

Hanging out with the wrong people, partying, staying out all night. I tried

rein her in, but she wouldn't let me. That pissed you off?

That she wasn't respecting your authority?

I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with what happened to her.

Talk to her friend, Julissa.

For a few times we can't run away. That's what they found this thing with

Guarantee she knows more than I do You to

a close Kinda I guess I don't know her long, but she was a good kid a little

lost He crashed with you a few times after she ran away from her coach's

Yeah. Yeah, I was just trying to help Like I said, she was good people got any

idea why she kept on running away

I think it was just too hard for her to still be in that world, you know?

Seeing Craig coach other girls who still got to live the life she thought she

was going to have.

Plus, he was crazy strict.

She stayed with you again September last year for a little while, too, right?

Yeah, for about two weeks.

But then we kind of had a fight, and she left to go stay with some guys she met

in the city.

You know the name of the guy that she went to stay with?

No, sorry.

But I do know where they met.

Have you seen this girl before?

She used to hang out here a lot.

Nah, sorry, man. She doesn't look familiar.

You know this girl?

Did she used to be blonde and date a dude named Nibs?

I don't think so.

Nah, I don't know her.

Damn, she's cute.

Yeah, I would.

That literally wasn't a question.

Oh, yeah, I know her.

You do?

I don't know her name or nothing, but she hangs out here all the time.

I haven't seen her in a while, though.

But her boyfriend, he comes here all the time.

Who's her boyfriend?

I don't know his name either, but he was here yesterday.

White guy, long brown hair.

He wears these crazy sneakers. They have, like, rainbow and gold sparkles.

All right, thanks for your help.

No doubt.

These kids are out here skateboarding in this weather.

Well, that's dedication right there. Mental illness.

All right.

You've got to be kidding me. Check out the sparkle shoes.

Hey. Hey!

NYPD, we need to talk to you. Stay right there.

Hey!

Leo, I'm north on Market.

Hey!

Hey, stop!

Hey!

Vince, I lost him. He crossed Mount Rose, headed north through the alley.

Copy that.

I got him.

Mechanic Sally.

I need an ambulance ASAP.

Mechanics alley between Madison and Henry. 10 -53, H -I.

Man down.

What the hell?

You just ran him down.

Bess. Bess, what's going on?

Are you okay? And we'll have your back through this, Pop.

Hello.

Hi.

You okay?

Walk me through what happened. We got a lead on the suspect, spotted him near

the park. He ran, so I pursued him on foot.

Vince was in the vehicle.

I was closing in, and a civilian just stepped into the middle of the street. I

mean, he came out of nowhere.

Was your siren on?

Yeah, of course it was. He just, you know, he didn't hear it. He had ear

protection on.

What's his status?

He's in surgery now. Did the doctor say anything?

No.

You know anything about this guy?

Derek Crosby works for an electrical company. He was on the job.

And he just walked into the middle of the road?

The street was closed off. The traffic.

There were signs posted?

Did you see them?

Yeah.

Uh, the suspect you were chasing, was he armed?

He had something in his hands that definitely could have been a gun.

I wasn't sure. I mean, it could have been.

Good.

You followed protocol.

Excuse me.

Excuse me.

My name is Sandra Crosby. I got a phone call that my husband was hit by a car.

Yes, ma 'am. He's here. He's currently in surgery.

Oh, my God.

Is he okay?

What's happening?

Why don't you have a seat over here?

I'll have the doctor come and talk to you as soon as he's available.

Would you like some coffee, tea, water?

You know what, Vince? I'm going to handle the family, and I think you need

home. I shouldn't. Yeah, but really, you shouldn't, right? You should just go

home right now.

She's right. It's been a lot.

As soon as I'm done here, I'll start an incident report. But right now, you need

to go home. Get some rest. Okay. All right. All right.

Vince.

Hey. Look.

I'm fine, man. All right?

I'm definitely not going home to take a nap.

I get that. Don't worry about it.

I'm going to find Sparkle's shoes.

I'll go through some security footage from the subway stations around the

where we lost her.

We took a train. Maybe we could track where he went.

Yeah, I'll start pulling the street cam from the park. Maybe we'll get a hit on

facial ret.

Look, man. You sure you're good? I'm fine.

All right?

I've got a job to do. Let's go.

You didn't touch your dinner.

You should really eat something.

I will.

Any news from the hospital?

Uh, Crosby is out of surgery, but he's still in the ICU.

Apparently he has significant swelling in his brain.

Doctors say it's 50 -50.

And how are you?

I will be a lot better when we catch this guy.

Vince, I was thinking maybe you should call him. I'm fine.

OK, really, I'm fine.

Vince.

All right, how about this? I will go to a meeting if I feel like I really need

one.

OK.

Right, that's him.

Yeah, that's him.

That's the man you were chasing? Yeah.

From two days ago.

What's he doing?

Looks like he's recording himself doing tricks.

When we saw him today, he was filming himself with a selfie stick.

Hey, Bridge.

I was doing my homework, Dad, I swear.

I was just looking up how to spell a word.

Yeah, sure you were.

I'm not here to bust you.

Well, in that case, that was actually on TikTok.

Sorry. Yeah, that's okay. It's actually what I need your help with.

I'm trying to find somebody who I'm pretty sure posts videos online, but I

know his name.

Does this have to do with what happened today?

You eavesdropping on me, Mom?

You're the one who said I should always be aware of my surroundings.

What do you know about the guy?

Uh, not much.

Really, he makes videos of himself skateboarding in the park, and he wears

sneakers with, like, glitter all over them. So I've been on Instagram and

TikTok, and I've tried every variation of, you know, glitter shoes, sparkle

shoes. Let me guess, you got too many results?

It's like everyone's a content creator now, really.

Do you know what park he films in?

Yeah, Lower East Side Coleman Skate Park. If he tagged the location, you

be able to find him that way.

There's a map.

Benny Haps, a .k .a. Benjamin Hoffman. Kid's got over 8 million followers.

That's gotta be our guy. Come on, those are the same shoes.

Oh, it's him.

Tex pulled fingerprints off the skateboard that he dropped at the park.

match to the partial we found on the suitcase.

This kid's 18 years old and started blowing up when he was 14, posting

himself online, skateboarding, doing stunts and stuff. Have you slept at all?

In 2024, a girlfriend of his accused him of choking her during an argument. She

later dropped those charges.

Clearly he has a history of violence against women.

And it gets better. According to this Forbes article I found, 10 content

creators to watch, this kid made over $7 million last year.

You're kidding me.

That's how he was able to afford a condo in the building where Lucia's body was

found. But his name was not on the list of owners to build his manager sent

over. He sold the condo four and a half months ago.

Okay.

Find him.

Now. Someone lives here?

I know, pretty sick, right?

Yo, Benny, there's some cops here. They want to talk to you.

Hey, look, man, I didn't mean to run. You wouldn't run now, would you?

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Unless you want a lawsuit on your hands, I'd be a lot

gentler, officer.

Detective Riley, who are you?

I'm Cordelia Travers. I'm Mr. Hoffman's attorney.

Don't say another word, Benjamin.

Bye -bye me. Turn around.

Benjamin Hoffman.

You're under arrest.

Not a word.

Hoffman's not talking.

Already lawyered up.

Cordelia Travers. He's not playing around.

So, what do we have?

Hoffman's fingerprints match the partial that we found on the suitcase, and his

credit card statements show that he purchased luggage that matched the same

and model.

Statements also show that he purchased Lucia a phone. We found a slew of

messages between them.

The text established that not only were they seeing each other, but she was

staying with him in the condo building where her body was found.

All communication from her stopped five months ago.

So what's the theory?

It's some kind of lover's quarrel. Hoffman kills her, puts her in the

and then clears out. That's the most logical explanation.

He's got a history of domestic violence.

It's unlikely that will be admissible.

We've got to charge him with something or cut him loose.

We charge him with reckless endangerment.

Derek Crosby, the worker who was injured during the pursuit, he's still in the

ICU. Yeah, I don't think that'll be necessary.

Let's charge him with murder, too. I can make this work.

Vince?

How'd it go with IAB?

Fine. You know, I told them what happened.

Ruled it an accident.

Good.

If you want to talk about it, I'm... Yeah, yeah.

I'm good.

Thanks.

Not a lot to say, you know.

Introducing the prior accusation of domestic abuse is more prejudicial than

probative. The prosecution is grasping here. I wouldn't characterize it that

way. And I'm not sure that's relevant. The assault charges against my client

were dropped.

And quite frankly, Mr. Price should know better. My colleague's indignation

notwithstanding, what I'm asking for, Your Honor, is to introduce testimony

Amanda Waller.

The defendant's ex -girlfriend. That's correct.

She will testify to an incident where Hoffman got physically violent with her.

The very definition of prior bad acts.

Let me finish. He got physically violent with her and specifically choked her.

Lucia Falasco's cause of death was a broken neck. It speaks to a pattern of

behavior and is therefore admissible under Molyneux. Choking someone and

breaking their neck are not the same thing. I was grasping. Again, my client

never formally charged.

It's just one woman's claim.

And the jury has the right to decide if they believe her or not.

I'm signing with the prosecution here.

He had his hand on my throat.

He was squeezing so hard.

I screamed for him to stop, but he just kept going. Did you believe he was going

to kill you?

Objection. Calls for speculation.

I will rephrase.

Were you scared for your life?

A hundred percent.

If someone hadn't stepped in and pulled him off of me, they wouldn't have

stopped. No further questions.

Miss Waller, you stated that during the fight, my client had his

hand on your throat.

Not both hands?

No. Where was his other hand?

Holding my wrist.

Because he was trying to stop you from pummeling him. In fact, multiple

eyewitnesses report you instigated...

The altercation. You thought he was cheating on you.

And you attacked him.

They just said that because they were all his friends. A man should never be

violent with a woman. He wasn't violent. He was trying to protect himself.

And you dropped the charges because you were the violent one.

No. I just knew people like you would take his side.

This incident took place at a house party.

Are you saying you really believed Mr. Hoffman was going to murder you in plain

sight? Yes.

You don't understand.

Benny doesn't think things through. He just does stuff.

And there are never consequences.

And how old were you both when this fight occurred?

Two years ago, 16.

Just a child?

He already lived on his own. He was an adult.

Did you know Lucia Velasco?

No. Were you present when she died?

No. So you have no knowledge of what happened to her?

Or who's responsible for her death?

Not specifically, but I know... No further questions.

Mr. Mason, you were the defendant's assistant, correct?

We didn't call it that, like, formal or whatever, but, yeah, he paid me to help

him out shooting content and running air and stuff like that.

Did he have you purchase a phone for Lucia Falasco in late September of last

year with his credit card?

He did.

I thought it was pretty crazy. They only knew each other for, like... a week,

and she was already living with him.

Do you have the opportunity to spend much time with Lucia during that period?

Yeah, we hung out a lot.

She was cool.

I am showing you what's already been entered into evidence as exhibit four.

This is the data from Lucia's phone, records of every keystroke, every time

was unlocked, every text she sent, every time she opened an app.

Can you see that it shows that she interacted with the device dozens of

day, just like you said?

Yeah. And can you see that all interaction with the phone ceased at 11

on the evening of September 24th?

Yes. From that point forward, there is no activity at all. Do you have any idea

why that is?

No. Is it possible it's because that's the night she was killed?

Objection. Witness has no way of knowing this and already stated as much.

Sustained. Mr. Mason.

Did you see Benjamin Hoffman on the night of September 24th? Yeah, I went

to his place around 9 and hung out for like half an hour. Was Lucia Falasco

there? Yes. When you left around 9 .30, were the defendant, Ms. Falasco, alone

in the apartment?

Yeah. Did you ever see her again after that?

No. She was never seen or heard from by anyone after that.

Never touched her phone again.

Did you receive a call?

From Mr. Hoffman the next day on September 25th.

Yeah. He asked me to run an errand for him.

He sent me to buy him a suitcase.

Is this the suitcase you purchased on Mr. Hoffman's behalf?

It looks like it, yeah.

It's a suitcase that was found with the defendant's fingerprint on it and with

Lucia Falasco's dead body stuffed inside.

Thank you. Nothing further.

Did my client ever explain to you?

Why Ms. Velasco was no longer living in his apartment?

Yeah, he said that she broke up with him and took off.

Something she had a history of doing.

So is it possible that the reason she stopped using your phone was that she

didn't bring it with her? Because she knew that Mr. Hoffman was paying for it.

Sure, that makes sense. And isn't it also possible that he put the luggage

you purchased in his apartment storage unit in the basement of his building, a

basement that has been established? Anyone?

Could have access to.

I guess so, yeah.

And lastly, in your time working for my client, did you ever see him behave

violently toward Miss Velasco? Or anyone, for that matter?

No.

He was always pretty chill.

Indeed. Thank you.

Nothing further.

We'll end there for today.

Trial will resume tomorrow at 9 a .m.

Court is adjourned.

Right.

Hold up.

Cordelia, let me guess.

You want to discuss a deal?

Oh, I forgot how brilliant you are.

Not interested.

You should be.

Why's that?

Because he's willing to tell you what really happened.

I really cared about Lucia.

She was funny.

Sweet.

Life has been tough, you know?

I understood. I started making real money as an influencer when I was 15.

But my parents were stealing from me. My dad lost a lot of that gambling.

So I took down the court. I got emancipated. We both have basically been

since we were 15.

Right. You're two lonely kids adrift in the world until you found each other. So

what made you kill her?

I would never hurt Lucia or anyone else. Okay, so you are just waiting our time.

Would you let him speak?

Why don't you just tell us what happened?

Go ahead. They can't use any of this in court.

I didn't kill Lucia, but I was there when it happened.

We were partying that night. You were doing drugs.

Cocaine.

That's why Corey stopped by. He was making a delivery.

We got high, and Lucia started to show me some of her old gymnastic moves on my

trampoline. It was all good vibes.

We were laughing, and then... She did a

backflip, and she was too close to the edge, so... She hit the side, and

she landed on the floor on her head.

And the sound was just...

It

was an accident.

If it was just an accident, then why didn't you call 911?

I panicked.

There were drugs everywhere.

And even though she's only 10 months younger than me, she's still technically

underage. So you thought putting her in a suitcase and leaving her there would

get you in less trouble?

I was high.

I wasn't thinking clearly. I just wanted to run away and never think about it

again.

I know what I did was wrong.

I know.

I'm sorry.

I just felt like the rest of my life would have been ruined.

Why didn't you tell us that when he was charged with murder?

He just told me the truth two days ago.

Tell me, Mr. Hoffman.

Mr. Hoffman, do you have any evidence to back up this story?

No.

I swear it was an accident. He's willing to plead guilty to the concealment of a

human corpse.

It's a proper charge here.

Offer declined.

That's okay.

I just, I wanted to tell the truth.

It was an accident.

Call Riley.

Tell him I need him to testify first thing in the morning about Hoffman

When they tried to question him, it will establish Hoffman's consciousness of

guilt. Will do.

But, Nolan, are you sure we shouldn't consider accepting the plea?

Just take his word for it that it was an accident?

Well, we could call the assistant again if he was actually there that night to

deliver the cocaine.

Yeah.

That still wouldn't prove that Hoffman's telling the truth about the rest of it.

Oh, I don't know. The scenario he laid out could very well result in a C1

cervical fracture. It's plausible.

Okay, but he can't prove any of it.

We can't prove he's lying either.

And if he's telling the truth, then the appropriate sentence is five years, not

25 to life.

His actions don't make any sense in the context of an accident. He shoved her

dead body.

into a suitcase and left her to rot. That is not the behavior of someone who

innocent. Well, sometimes people behave irrationally when something crazy

happens.

The defense is welcome to present their version of events to the jury.

I would love to see how they react to the news that Hoffman has been lying to

them this entire time.

Call Riley.

Mr.

Price, are you ready to call your next witness?

Just one moment, Your Honor.

Mr. Price.

Your Honor, it seems we are having some difficulty locating our next witness. We

request a brief continuance while we look into the matter. With all due

not our problem.

Defense requests we move forward.

I'll give you 24 hours.

Okay, thanks.

That was Brady.

She spoke with Riley's wife. She can't get a hold of him either. He's not

answering anyone's phone calls.

Okay.

Well, let's start calling around hospitals, see if anyone has been

matches his description.

Hey, hey.

Man, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Right? I was a no -show.

We've been looking for you. We were worried.

Now, what's going on?

Are you okay?

Derek Crosby was declared brain dead this morning, and his family took him

life support.

Why don't we go in my office?

I will get us some coffee.

Call Brady and let her know he's been found.

Here, have some of this.

Crosby's death is my fault. No, it was an accident.

No. No, I was reckless.

Vince, have you been drinking?

What difference does that make?

Is that a yes?

I saw the orange signs. I should have been more careful. You were pursuing a

murder suspect. He stepped in front of your vehicle. There's nothing... I knew

he wasn't armed.

Hoffman, I had no reason to think that he had a gun. No, but you said that you

saw it in his hand. I lied.

Make my actions seem justified? Vince, you need to be careful. I got so scared

for my career and my whole life. I'm not the person you should be saying this

to. I am a prosecutor, not a priest.

You're exactly the person I need to say this to.

I want to tell the truth.

I screwed up.

And now... Vince, stop talking.

You didn't want this to happen.

And you were doing your job.

And... Accidents happen.

It's not right. It's not fair.

It's just the way it is.

But you can't let one accident destroy the rest of your life.

Is there someone I can call? Your wife? No, no, no.

I'm good.

I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.

How's he doing?

He's having a hard time.

I'm just going to go make sure he gets home all right.

Call Corey Mason.

Let's see if he backs up Hoffman's claims.

So, what's this about?

Well, your client's assistant confirmed that he was at the apartment that night

to deliver cocaine.

We are willing to drop the murder to charge in exchange for him pleading

to concealment of a human corpse and reckless endangerment.

Assuming his version of events is true, he purchased and provided Lucia with

drugs which were directly causal to her death.

I'll be looking at six to eight years instead of 25 to life.

We've got a deal. We'll drop the agreement.

So, Counselor, what caused you to reverse course?

I thought there was a chance the jury might believe him.

Wow. Not a change of heart.

Well, that's a shame.

I'll buy you a drink. Come on.

It's been two months since I last drank.

Prior to that, I'd...

Almost made it to the one -year mark.

But I had a few bad days.

And I... And

it's hard.

But today was easier than yesterday.

So... There's that.

I know I just have to get up every day and keep going.

And I will.