All language subtitles for The.Confession.Tapes.S02E03.WEBRip.x264-ION10

[radio chatter]

[man] You have something to tell me
that you're hiding from me.

[woman] Okay.

[man] And it's upsetting me
because you're...

a beautiful girl, okay?

What happened out there
I don't believe was an accident.

Deep down in your heart, Angelika,

did you want to kill him?

-No.
-Deep down?

I'm not gonna judge you
for anything you tell me.

It's between me and you right now,
all right?

[Angelika] Deep down...

I wanted him gone.

[phone ringing]

[dispatcher] 911, where is your emergency?

[Angelika] I'm in the Hudson River.

My fiancé flipped over.

He's in the water right now.

-[dispatcher] What's your name?
-Angelika.

-Stay on the phone with me, okay?
-[Angelika] I can't get to him.

It's very windy
and the waves are coming in

and I can't paddle to him.

He's getting further and further away.

He's gonna drown.

-Please call somebody.
-[dispatcher] We've got help on the way.

[male dispatcher] 411,
respond down to the Hudson River.

[Angelika] Hold on, baby!

Oh, my God.

[Angelika yells]

[dispatcher] Try to calm down some, okay?

-[Angelika] I don't see him anymore.
-All right, Angelika?

[Angelika] He's lost.

[dispatcher] You don't see him?

[Angelika] Oh, my God.

[distant sirens blaring]

[man] On Sunday evening, April 19th,

Angelika Graswald contacted 911,

and she reported that her fiancé,
Vincent Viafore's kayak capsized

due to choppy waters

and she could not locate him in the river.

She made statements
that implicated herself in this crime.

However, absent his body,

there's a lot of work
that remains to be done.

[woman] The narrative
that was coming out was that she...

kind of planned this whole thing,

that she took him out
and planned to kill him.

[man 2] Prosecutors say Graswald
admitted to tampering

with Viafore's kayak by pulling
his drainage plug, similar to this.

That would cause the kayak
to fill with water, causing it to capsize.

[officer] By taking that plug out,
you killed Vinny.

Correct?

[Angelika] Correct.

[officer] And you wanted
that to happen, correct?

[Angelika] Correct.

She really trusted
the New York State Police,

and she felt like
these men were out to help her.

But they thought that she was here
from this poor Eastern Bloc country

to marry an American

and kill him and inherit his money,
and she was like this black widow.

[woman] They were trying to paint her
as the villain

because she didn't seem
like a grieving girlfriend.

She didn't seem like a grieving fiancée.

I don't think she could have planned it,

but I still have doubts. Yes, I do.

[thunder rumbles]

[woman 2] The relationship
was not perfect.

So I did feel a certain sense of relief...

after...

everything happened.

[Angelika] We met at a bar.

It was just instant connection.

Just a laid-back, cool, down-to-earth guy.

Very cheerful, very social.

Anything you would want.

We actually both had been married twice
and no children.

But he loved children.

He was great with them.

You know how it melts your heart
when you see your guy with a kid?

It was like that.

But we also had a lot of friction and...

fighting and misunderstanding.

[Angelika] Bannerman's Island
reminds me of Europe.

That's why I kind of
fell in love with it instantly.

What took my breath away mostly

was the view of the Hudson from there.

The southern side,
like, the mountains coming in,

and then just the river.

It's just stunning.

I can't explain it.

We wanted to get married there.

We wanted to take our wedding pictures
by the arsenal.

[woman] Angelika was one of our volunteers
on the island.

She was always very happy, very friendly,
very helpful.

She would always volunteer to do
anything that needed to be done.

My husband and I,

we have a telescope
that happens to be aimed

at the island so we can clearly see it
from our window.

The day that this happened,
Wes happened to be looking out

and noticed two people on the dock.

You could see that it was getting rough,

and it was cold. I mean, it was
April 19th, so the water was...

maybe upper 30s?

They say five minutes in that temperature
would lead to hypothermia,

that you could not physically move
your hands or your legs.

I don't see how she could have helped him,
even if she wanted to.

[man] I was actually
off that day, honestly,

and I got a phone call and asked
if I wanted to come in and work overtime.

My dispatcher said,
"Don't get too comfortable.

We have an overturned kayak in the river."

We made our way to the shoreline.

After several minutes,
they were able to pick a woman,

a female, out of the water,

later identified as Angelika Graswald.

Her fiancé, he's missing.

He went under,
and that was the last we saw of him.

She sat on a gurney at that point

and then started getting
attended to medically.

As I'm sitting there looking at her,

she seemed just emotionless.

She wasn't crying,

she wasn't smiling, she wasn't...

Didn't seem sad.

She seemed very emotionless to me,
which was odd to me.

[interviewer] Have you heard the 911 call?

Yes.

She seemed awfully calm to me.

For somebody whose boyfriend just went
over and, you know, is drowning,

she seemed awfully calm.

I don't know. There was a space of time
between the time they left

and the time the 911 call was made

and... I don't know.

It might have been longer
than it should have been.

From Bannerman's Island to Plum Point
would be about a half hour.

It's only a mile.

Angelika sent me a text message
around 7:04.

The 911 call was made at 7:40,

and that's 36 minutes,

and they weren't all the way across,
either, when this happened.

So she's thinking,
"Okay, he went in the river

and let's just sit here and wait
a few minutes before we call for help."

Could have been ten minutes.
Could have been 15 minutes.

You know, it just makes you wonder.

Talking to the state police investigators,

they really believe
that it was premeditated.

Even my nephew said,
"There's something wrong.

Uh, she... I think she did something."

Vinny brought Angelika to my home.

I wasn't very impressed.

You can tell sometimes
when a person is warm.

You know,
they have that kind of personality,

and, uh, I don't really think
she had that.

I found out later

that the relationship was very tumultuous,
you know.

They would go back and forth.

Being his mother,

he doesn't always tell you everything.

So there's a lot of things I didn't know

and I found out after everything happened.

On the day that it happened,

Vinny sent a text to his sister,

letting her know that
he was going kayaking with Angelika.

So that was very, very odd

because he'd never done that before.

He said what time they were leaving
and what time they should be home.

But, um...

But he never came home.

I don't know what she did,
but I believe she did something...

to cause his death.

[man] We have a state police marine unit
in the water right now.

They have side-scanning sonar.

When the water is this rough,
it's very difficult to operate

and keep your grid line searches.

And probably have to call it here
in a little bit,

and then we'll be back out tomorrow
if the weather turns.

[man 2] I was completely crushed,
along with everybody else

'cause everyone had been looking
on the Hudson River,

hoping Vinny was, you know, maybe
unconscious or just out there.

And you don't know whether or not
he's alive or dead 'cause no one knew.

Vinny was probably
the greatest human being I've ever met.

He'd walk in a room,

something like out of Goodfellas,
the movie. He'd be like Jimmy the Gent.

When he walked into a room, the whole--
you were just attracted to Vinny.

See, now, this is the strange part.

People grieve differently,

but Angelika,
the day after he was missing,

she posted on social media

a photograph of her doing shots.

And that's when I was like,
"What is going on here?"

And then, like, the third day,
she's doing cartwheels.

[woman] Woo!

Yay!

[Angelika]
Well, I felt like I had to put on...

a face.

I don't know if it's just my culture,
my background,

you know, not showing your emotions.

But I felt like I needed
to hold it together...

for others.

I just behaved
the way I-- the best I knew how.

It was wrong, in public's opinion, but...

that's me.

[woman] It was Wednesday.

All the gardeners are together.

Angelika was on the dock,
getting ready to come on up.

She seemed down.

She said, "Yes, I'm feeling very bad."

And to my surprise,

there was a bunch of policemen
coming up on the island as well.

At this point, it's April 29th,
so it's ten days after Vince goes missing.

They do not have a body.

They don't know truly the cause of death.

Waiting for her on the island

was a pack of wolves

and their names were DaSilva,
Moscato and DeQuarto.

They swore up and down
that this was a coincidence,

and that they weren't there for her,

and that they were on the island
kind of just like looking for clues.

It was comical.

We have photos that they took
on the island,

and they were there posing together,

like, embracing each other,
taking selfies.

In one picture, Investigator Moscato
was faking reaching down

and collecting a piece of evidence.

He was posing. He looked like OJ.

Really, he looked like OJ.

[Joyce] As I was sitting on the ground
doing my gardening,

I did hear one gentleman,

a very loud voice, strong.

He said, "It's your turn,

and get that bitch to tell you the story."

They were taking turns at questioning her,

to the point that she would
break down and cry.

So that was kind of scary,

knowing the interrogation was happening
right in front of our eyes.

[Richard] At this point,
she's had no grief counseling.

She's had no one to talk to.
Hadn't slept in days.

So Investigator DeQuarto takes up the role
of kind of a therapist.

She says, "Well, the plug was out,"

and it caused her incredible stress.

He's like, "What do you mean?"
He has no idea what she's talking about.

Investigator DeQuarto doesn't even know

where it was located on the vessel.

He thinks it's at the bottom.

So, in his mind,

when she says, "The plug was out,"

he thinks that she confessed
to killing Vince,

to taking the plug out with the intention
that he'd drown and die.

Well, I knew it wasn't in,

and I remember telling Vince about it
when we got on the water.

I remember being, like, mad at him

for not paying attention
that it was missing.

It was his kayak, his equipment.

He should have taken care of it,
but he didn't, and I should have...

done that for him
because I knew he was forgetful.

But I didn't, so I felt guilty
and conflicted about it.

Well, they asked me
to come to barracks with them.

They said, "Would you come down
and give us a statement?"

I'm like, "Sure. No problem."

I didn't think anything of it.

-[DeQuarto] So we had a good discussion.
-[Angelika] We did.

-[DeQuarto] I think you feel a lot better.
-Yeah, I do.

-[DeQuarto] It's therapy for you.
-Of course.

-[DeQuarto] You'll feel better.
-[Angelika] You will too.

-May I sit closer?
-Absolutely. Come on in.

[Angelika] I don't know.
He just made me feel comfortable,

and I thought that I could open up to him.

I couldn't talk to anybody else about it.

And, you know, you just go through
a million things in your mind.

You think and you blame yourself,
you blame somebody else,

you blame him, you're angry at him,

you're angry at yourself.

All of that. The whole...

cocktail of feelings and emotions.

I went through it all.

So when he offered,

when he said the word "therapy,"

I was like, "Okay, maybe this is it.
Maybe this is the outlet.

Maybe I could open up and get it
off my chest, like they want me to."

[DeQuarto] So we're gonna start
from your relationship with Vinny.

[Angelika] Hm-mm.

[Angelika] Just like any couple,
we had our issues.

-[DeQuarto] And what issues would that be?
-[Angelika] Um...

He kept pushing me.

[DeQuarto] What do you mean
he was pushing?

[Angelika] He pushed for everything.
He pushed for sex, for sexual stuff.

-[DeQuarto] Okay. He always wanted sex?
-Yeah.

[DeQuarto] Sexual things?

[Angelika] Well, yeah.
He wanted threesomes, porno, everything.

-[DeQuarto] Okay.
-And I was not ready.

Well, kind of very early
into the relationship,

he just had certain requests.

And I was willing
to do some things, but...

other things made me very uncomfortable,*
and I didn't want to do them.

He was obsessed.

He would text me daily.

Things like...

a certain pornographic image or something,

and he would be thinking of me
in that form,

and I would be, like, disgusted by it.

So, yeah, I felt like there was
a battle going on within me.

I wanted to please him and make him happy,

and at the same time, I didn't want
to do what he asked me to do.

[interviewer] Did he ever
force himself on you?

Yeah, he did.

[rain tapping on roof]

[sighs]

[whispers] Excuse me.

[sighs]

[switch clicks]

He pushed you past your breaking point,
didn't he?

Yeah.

How did it make you feel?

I was angry.

-Very angry?
-Yeah.

[DeQuarto] So why didn't you
just break up with him?

'Cause I loved him. I wanted a kid.
I wanted a family.

I wanted all of it.

[DeQuarto] And you love him a lot.
I see that.

But when you watched him

in the water...

[static]

...was a part of you saying,
"My worries are gone away now"?

-Yeah.
-"And I'm free"?

-Yeah.
-And were you almost...

-[Angelika] Euphoric?
-Euphoric that he was gonna be gone?

I do. I did.

-You felt that way?
-Yeah.

I still do.

[Richard] This was Investigator DeQuarto's
first homicide.

He was absolutely fixated on her
as having been a killer.

To me, he wanted
to make a murder out of this.

You know exactly what took place,

and that's all I'm trying to get at

so I can say, "Listen, this girl felt like
a trapped person.

She..."

[Angelika]
Dealt with a lot of anger issues.

[DeQuarto] "She was forced to do things

that she did not want to do,

and this is why this took place,"

and I can explain that.

[DeQuarto] You need to be honest with me.

Did you intentionally take that plug out
because you wanted to set yourself free?

[Angelika] Could be.

[DeQuarto] Could be or yes?

[Angelika] Well, it's psychological.
I'm just trying to understand...

myself, like how and why would I do that.

[DeQuarto] Right.

[static]

I didn't want anybody hurt.

I never would want anybody hurt.

[DeQuarto] Right.

So why do you feel guilt?

Because of that thought that I had.

[DeQuarto] That you--

[Angelika] That I wanted to be free,

-that I wanted him to be gone.
-Okay.

So I feel guilty about that.

[DeQuarto] That's understandable.

[Richard] Investigator DeQuarto,
his ultimate goal was to convince her

that, subconsciously,

she had taken the plug out to kill Vince.

[birds chirping]

[man] Most of the headlines alluded
to "killing fiancé with kayak,"

and that's really what
caught my attention.

I was like, "Hm, how do you kill someone
with a kayak?"

I started working with Richard Portale

and the defense team, specifically around
the mechanics of paddle sport,

boat design and how boats work

in complex environments
like the Hudson River.

In the Graswald case,

if we're hinging
on intentionally removing the drain plug

so that water would

come in through this part of the boat,

that would be a really complex
way to kill someone.

To...

build a plan around something
that is about a half-inch in diameter,

that's like a James Bond villain plan,

like sharks with laser beams
on their head-type plan.

Um, because so many things
have to be constructively aligned

in order to achieve an outcome.

So, as I'm paddling,

just look at the distance
of the drain plug...

to the water.

The prosecution, they were really
sticking to the drain plug

as their primary angle.

And so there's a lot of video footage.

They were trying to show
that you could sink a boat

by removing the drain plug.

[man 1] Camera's recording.

-[whistle blows]
-[man 2] Go!

One video was a variety
of different-sized people

really aggressively paddling

in order to get the stern to submerge.

[man] Start.

[man] No, no, no.

No, we didn't...
I'm gonna say, "Ready, set, go."

[Todd] Looking at that footage,

my gut response was,
"Wow, they're trying really hard

to get the stern to go underwater."

You can get anything to happen
if you try hard enough.

[engine roars]

I went on the Hudson, and they had
the powerboat go around,

and they said, "Let's swamp the boat."

The cockpit is relatively close
to the water.

With a little bit of wave action
and a bit of wind,

waves are gonna come over the deck of
that boat and enter through the cockpit.

The boat, essentially, is a bathtub.

There really isn't a bulkhead.

And if we look sideways,

we can see very clearly...

a small wave lapping
is gonna cause water to go into...

this giant hole.

[Richard] Vince is not respectful
of the river, so he doesn't have

any of the safety precautions
that an experienced,

vigilant kayaker would have.

So the water is 44.5 degrees that day,

but Vince doesn't take that
into consideration.

He doesn't think it's important
to wear a wet suit.

His kayak, we know,
is designed for a pond.

This is a recreational kayak.

If you're expecting whitecaps or waves

or any kind of turbulence,
it doesn't belong there.

That's in the manual.

Vince's kayak has beers

and a six-pack of water.

He's got chairs.

They've got these kayaks weighted down.

Vince's BAC was 0.066,

which in New York State
is legally impaired.

When they set out at four o'clock,

the weather wasn't bad.

But around seven, the weather kicks up

and it really kicks up.

And at some point, Vince swamps.

So now he's going very fast,

being pulled south in the water.

She's fighting the wind,
dead into the wind,

and she's being pulled north,
and so they're being pulled apart.

Our experts...

So Todd Wright, who is one of the best
kayakers in the world currently,

said that he would love that.
Like, he would...

But he wouldn't use that kayak.

He wouldn't be caught in that kayak.

But for an inexperienced kayaker

and someone who is not prepared
with the proper safety equipment,

it can be deadly, and it was deadly.

[static]

Because of the waves
which started to pick up, I couldn't...

He started
to come in and out of my vision.

I started losing sight of him,
so I kept paddling.

[DeQuarto] Okay.

And then when he yells to you,
"I don't think I'm gonna make it,"

did you call 911 then or--

No, I called 911
when he told me to call 911.

[Richard] It's a creep.

You know, it's a slow grind,

kind of like a Komodo dragon,
you know, hunts a deer,

like miles and miles and days and days.

He just kept at her.

[DeQuarto]
Is that all that happened at that point?

-[Angelika] Yeah.
-Nothing else?

[Angelika] Nothing else.

[DeQuarto] And you watched him drown?

[static]

-[DeQuarto] I know it's difficult.
-No, I didn't just watch him drown.

I tried to do something about it.

[Richard] So eventually,
I think he realizes

that he wasn't getting what he wanted,
and he tagged out.

You know, he tagged out
to Investigator Skarkas,

who comes in even more aggressively,
and they were relentless.

[rustling]

[man] All right.

-Angelika...
-Hi.

How you doing? I'm Matt.

-[Angelika] Nice to meet you.
-He works with me.

[Angelika] Okay. That's your partner?

One of them. He's one of them.

[Skarkas] Some of the time frames
that we've talked about don't match up.

[Angelika] Okay. Which ones?

[Skarkas sighs]

From the time
you leave Bannerman Island...

-to the time that you make the 911 call.
-Okay.

[Skarkas] All right?

For that duration of time
which is, like, about 40 minutes--

-[Angelika] Oh, it's 40?
-Yeah, it's right around there.

It's long enough...

for you to be back at Plum Point.

Did anything happen out there,
aside from what you're telling me,

that there's a delay?

Did he go under and you wait ten minutes,
and then you call 911?

No, I called 911
when he was still holding on.

[Richard] They thought she killed him.
They just didn't know how.

The theory was that she let him drown,

and she didn't do anything to save him,
and she just watched him go,

but if that's the case,

she would have been recovered
well north of Plum Point.

[Skarkas] Did you pull the oar away?
Did you pull the kayak away?

[Angelika] No.

I didn't pull the kayak or oar away.

[Skarkas] But there's nothing else?

-No.
-There's not gonna be any type of a drug,

anything that you would have
put into a drink,

food, anything like that
that we're gonna find in there?

I have sleeping pills
that my doctor prescribed,

but I haven't touched them.

Okay. You didn't crush any up
and put them inside any of his drinks,

-nothing like--
-That was after.

-They gave me those sleeping pills.
-Okay.

I just picked them up yesterday, actually.

[mechanical whirring]

[Angelika]
When you are in a room like that

and you have no windows, no sense of time,

they take everything from you,

plus not sleeping
for several days prior to that,

I was exhausted. I was stressed out.

I was not in a right state of mind.

I was... lost.

Just the setting of,

"Oh, you can't leave the room by yourself.

You can't go to the bathroom by yourself.
You'll be escorted."

And I had my period happening
at that time,

so I kind of needed a bathroom.

And they...

didn't care. [chuckles]

They just kept pushing

and pressuring and trying to get out of me

and squeeze out of me
everything they could.

-Angelika?
-Yes?

[Richard] So, at that point,

they have executed search warrants
of the apartment.

They have her in the interrogation room.

They do not have a body.

They don't know truly the cause of death,

and they now come to realize
that there's a gun missing.

[DeQuarto] In the house,
Vinny had guns, right?

[Angelika] Yes.

[DeQuarto] Do you know specifically
what type of guns they were?

[Angelika] No.

[DeQuarto] Okay,
'cause there's one gun that's missing.

There's magazines for it
and bullets for it,

but the gun's not there.

-[Angelika] What do you mean?
-[DeQuarto] I don't know.

I'm asking, did you know
where that one gun might be?

Have you seen all of his guns?

-[Angelika] No, I haven't.
-[DeQuarto] No?

They really thought that she shot him,

and they believed that
when they did find Vince's body,

he was going to have a gunshot wound
somewhere on his body.

[Skarkas] Okay, you're lying to me,
and you're lying to yourself

because you still will not come out
and say what we know to be true.

[Angelika] I don't want to admit...

that I killed him.

[Skarkas] Okay. I understand that.

-[Angelika] Okay.
-But you did.

When you say, "I want to be free,"

you're not going to be free of any of this

until you admit you killed Vinny.

You took that plug out to kill him.

-[Angelika] Can you lower your voice?
-I just have a big mouth, sorry.

[Angelika] I do too.

[Skarkas]
I come from a Mediterranean family.

[Angelika mumbles]

[static]

[Angelika] Well, go ahead.

[Skarkas] I want to hear it from you.

To me, personally,

it was just the constant
repetition of questions

and going over it and over it
and over it and...

just, again, pressure.

I don't deal well with pressure. [laughs]

I guess.

[Skarkas] You killed Vinny.

Right?

[inaudible]

-No, I'm asking you the question--
-You want me to admit it.

[Skarkas] I want you to tell me the truth.

-I am telling you the truth.
-What is the answer to that question?

I didn't... I didn't want him...

Angelika, what is the true answer
to that question?

[Angelika]
You need your fucking statement.

[Skarkas] What is it?

[Angelika]
I wanted him dead, and now he's gone.

And I'm okay with that.

[Angelika clears throat]

[Angelika] I'm okay with that.

[knocking, door opens]

Stand up.

[Angelika] You don't expect
anything like that happening.

I didn't know I was a suspect.

That was never in my mind.

Not until they put the cuffs on me.
I didn't know that.

[keys jangling]

Oddly enough, I got a phone call.

The exact words were, "They arrested
your kayak chick for murder,"

and I'm like, "Shut up." And they're like,
"Yeah." And I'm like, "Really?"

[reporter 1] A love story that police say
ended in murder.

[reporter 2] Tonight, the fiancée
of a missing kayaker

is charged in his death.

This case took on a life of its own
in the media.

Because this was a murder charge,
it was very unusual.

Like, pulling a plug from a kayak.

No one had really seen this before.

It turned into a media circus.

Well, prosecutors maintain
that Angelika Graswald pulled the plug...

Pulled the plug
on the drain hole in the rear,

allowing water to enter more easily...

[reporter] They did say she made
statements she was relieved Viafore died.

The so-called Kayak Killer,
Angelika Graswald,

admitted to killing her fiancé,

but a legal loophole
still makes her eligible

to cash out
on his life insurance policy.

[Mary Ann]
She knew about the insurance policy,

so maybe she thought...

that, you know, "I can get some money
and be on my own."

My daughter and myself,
the three of us were on it.

It was a big chunk of money
that she would have gotten.

You're engaged to be married.

You're starting to set up
your life together.

And if anyone was going
to murder somebody,

you would do it for millions.

Millions! [laughs]

If you're gonna get murdered...

Oh, God.

She didn't murder him at all.

It was an accident on the river.

[phone ringing]

[dispatcher] 911, where is the emergency?

[man] I'm not sure it's an emergency,
but I'm just south of Newburgh in my boat

and there's a body floating in the water.

[dispatcher] Do you have a buoy number?

[man] Let me see.

It's just south
of what's called Bannerman's Island.

I think the state police found...

five people in the water
looking for my son.

So every time they found somebody,
you know, we would...

"Is it Vinny?"

And it wasn't until May 23rd.

Evidently, a fisherman saw a body
near Bannerman's Island.

[dispatcher] And it's a body, correct?

[man] It's a body, yeah.
It's floating in the water. It's--

-[dispatcher] Is it a male or a female?
-[man] It looks like it's a male.

[dispatcher] Can you give me
a clothing description, if there's any?

[man] Kind of tan pants
and, like, a dark shirt.

A lot of algae on 'em.

Because of what he was wearing,

they thought it was him.

But they had to use the dental records,
and they took my DNA just to make sure.

And it was.

It was him.

[reporter] The state police were
patrolling the waters

off West Point on Saturday
when they discovered Viafore's body.

By that time, he had been inside
the Hudson River for more than a month.

The Orange County DA won't comment
on the condition of the body.

Toxicology tests are underway
to determine the cause of death.

This is Jennifer Roman,
dictating case OC-15.

Also present, senior investigator
with the New York State Police.

[camera shutter clicking]

[camera shutter clicking]

I hereby certify that I, Jennifer Roman,
Orange County Acting Medical Examiner,

performed an autopsy
on the body of Vincent Viafore.

Final diagnosis: numeral one drowning.

Letter A: body recovered from water.

Letter B: pulmonary congestion
and edema with hyperinflation.

[Richard] They fully examined him,
inside and out,

and they did not find any foul play.

[man] The coroner's report

says that the cause of death was drowning

due to plug being removed
by some other person.

The medical examiner relied
on speculation from police.

Does that wash?

[woman] This is absolutely ridiculous.

There's no way for this coroner
to be able to determine whether or not,

medically, this was a homicide.

I don't know. Yeah.

I remember seeing it
and going, "Oh, my God.

You've got to be kidding me."

[reporter] Accused kayak killer
Angelika Graswald

isn't talking much these days.

Graswald, meanwhile,

who is a foreign national
holding a Latvian passport,

remains behind bars on a crushing bail
of $3 million cash, $9 million bond.

Her lawyer says she'll likely
stay in jail until the trial.

[Angelika] When they put me in jail,

I was so tired.
Like, I think the first two days in jail,

I just slept.

I even passed out in a peanut butter
sandwich in a waiting room.

For the longest time, I thought, "Okay,

I'm gonna be out of here.

There's no way they're gonna put me away.

They can't 'cause I didn't do anything."

But as the time went by,

and I was there for so long,

I just started to think that...

"Well, they can actually put me away."

[Richard] Imagine an entire defense team.

Three lawyers, two investigators,
four experts

are funneling towards this moment.

-Good afternoon, everyone.
-Good afternoon, Judge.

[Angelika] The trial, I dreaded.

I didn't want to put
Vince's family through that,

or my family through that.

I wanted nothing to do with that.

I just wanted to be done.

[Richard] The prosecution starts
to pressure us

to resolve it without a trial.

So we were able to craft a plea, you know,

and the plea would be
to criminally negligent homicide.

He told me...

"It's either this or we go to trial."

I talked to my family. I prayed about it.

Twenty-five to life.

Imagine that being told to you.

What do you do?

You take the least out of both evils.

Angelika Graswald has been here in
Orange County Jail for more than two years

and now that plea deal could
get her released on time served.

[man] You have removed the plug
from his kayak

at some point
prior to April 19th. Correct?

Yes.

[man] As Vincent attempted to kayak
back across the Hudson River,

he struggled in his kayak. Correct?

Yes.

[man] His kayak took on water
and began to sink. Correct?

Yes.

[man] His kayak took on water
because of the plug being out

and the conditions of the river. Correct?

Yes.

[man] As his kayak continued
to take on water,

he entered the river
and was out of his kayak. Correct?

[Richard] Can we have a second?

Can we have a second, please?

[judge] You pled to something,

not necessarily an intentional act
that you committed,

but you certainly knew
how to end unsatisfactory relationships

in a manner that would be
socially and legally acceptable.

You could have walked out on Vinny
if you were unhappy.

It just shows
that you are the kind of person...

You certainly have a lack of understanding
of other people's feelings.

It appears to me you have
an excessive need for admiration...

and Mr. Viafore was
the unnecessary victim of that.

[Angelika] Judge Freehill.

I don't like to speak bad about anyone,

but he was very mean to me that day.

He just put me down, and I was, like,

"Wow. That's what you really think of me?"

I never stood a chance.

If I went to trial with him
in the judge seat,

I would have been put away.

Judge laid into Angelika Graswald

before sentencing her
to four years in prison.

Four years for taking someone's life?
No way.

My son was a good man,
and everybody loved him,

and we miss him very much.

[Angelika]
We are in a Christian camp where I live.

This is one of the cabins
that is called a hideout,

and I come out here to just be alone,

be with God.

Having faith is what got me through this.

Thinking back when the interrogation
was happening, just the thought

that I could have gotten up and left
at any point never crossed my mind.

I never thought that I could just leave.

I thought that by speaking
and telling them everything that I knew

or I could tell them,

that I would just clear it up,
I wouldn't need a lawyer,

and I would just be free.

But... [laughs]

Boy, was I naive!