All language subtitles for The wrong man 1x01

She immediately
recognized the person

who had shot her boyfriend

and the father of her son,

and that person
she identified

was "Junior" Salas.

Her testimony
and the fact that

"It was him, there,

that pulled the trigger"...

He was 14 at the time
of the alleged murder,

1 month before
his 15th birthday.

They ruled in favor
of sending him to adult court.

This was a case where
there was no issues

with regard to self defense,

with regard to, um,
any type of a struggle.

It was a simple case of him
walking up, pulling out his gun,

and shooting this victim
twice in the head.

This is certainly
an interesting case.

On November 14, 1995,

6:20 at night

in Sunnyside,
Washington.

Saul Road.

Ofelia was driving.

She's with her boyfriend,
Jose Arreola.

He's 24 years old.

They park.
Baby's in the car.

Uh, Ofelia starts
to get out of the car

with the baby.

The state of Washington
claims

that Evaristo Salas
walked up

and blew two holes
in the head of Jose

while his girlfriend
was right there.

Period.
That's the entire story.

We got this case from...
from you, Joe.

How did you
get this case?

I get a lot of letters, uh,
you know, when "Paradise Lost"

or any of my criminal justice
stuff, um, airs, you know,

and I'm not naive
enough to think

that everyone who writes me
is necessarily innocent,

but this letter struck, um,

a particular chord with me,
you know?

He had seen "Paradise Lost"
on television,

and that's what
prompted him to write me.

West Memphis Police
charged three teens

with three counts each
of felony murder.

I did not kill those children
or anybody else.

I had nothing to do with it,
and I know nothing about it.

They know that they got
three innocent people

locked up for a crime
they didn't commit.

These people would've gotten
away with murdering me

if it would not have been
for what you guys did.

We've been waiting
for this day for 18 years,

and it's... it's incredible that
these guys are out of prison.

The West Memphis
Three were arrested as teens.

He was arrested as a teen.

So I was just very moved
by his letter.

So I'm not hoping we find
one thing or the other.

You know, I want us to look
into the case without any bias.

But hopefully we'll find
some good information.

So we have a private
investigator

on the ground
in Washington.

What are we thinking we can
get her to look into?

I think
our scene witnesses.

I think we need to,
you know,

identify and locate them,
interview them.

Hello.

Thank you for being
our eyes and ears

on the ground.

I'm Sue-Ann. I'm a former
state attorney in Florida.

I'm a defense attorney now.

I've been a lawyer
for 10 years.

I've worked on wrongful
conviction cases before.

I'm Ron Kuby.

I've been doing criminal
defense work for 33 years,

which means I've been
opposing law enforcement

for the past 33 years.

Hey, Janell. Joe Kennedy.

I'm an old, broke-down
federal agent,

uh,
30 years in the business.

Retired NCIS agent.

I started our cold-case squad

and then worked murders
all around the world.

My name is Ira Todd.
I'm a homicide detective.

I worked homicide task force
in Detroit,

FBI task force for 17 years,
public corruption task force,

and, uh,
I'm an interrogator.

That's my little specialty.

How long have you been
doing investigations?

Well, we've been doing private
investigations for 15 years.

Can you help us with some
information about Sunnyside?

Sunnyside
is very agricultural.

Very small little town.

Historically, Sunnyside
had been white farmers,

agriculture, and then
they started bringing in

a lot of agricultural workers
from Mexico.

So it's about
80% Hispanic now.

The Yakima Valley has long been

recruiting
Mexican migrant labor,

and the first really big wave
of, um, migrants to the area

was during World War II.

As Americans,
we want our cheap fruit,

and they actively
recruit the workers

to come pick the fruit
for minimum wages,

yet there's a lot of resentment
and this feeling,

"Well, just come
pick the apples,

pick the cherries
and the asparagus,

and then just go home."

Well, that's not
what was happening.

I mean, these people came
in search of a better life,

and a lot of the white people

just really resented
the Mexican workers.

A lot of them are undocumented,

so they don't have
any political power.

They don't have
any economic power.

They don't speak the language.

So there's a huge
power imbalance,

and that just creates tension.

There's also a lot
of gang activity.

As a matter of fact,
they were the first city,

I believe, in the state
of Washington

to pass an ordinance against
gang activity in the city.

By day, Sunnyside is
as peaceful as its name.

But when the sun goes down...

Bledsoe, four ahead,
Sunnyside.

...youth gangs
roam the streets.

Look at that beautiful mess.

How much of this is gonna
go on before it ends?

We have a real big
migrant population here.

And they're bringing
a lot of knowledge

and, uh, a lot of that
activity with them.

It's scary.
It's real scary.

What do you guys
think of gangs?

-They're awesome, man. -They're awesome.
-Hey, we think that.

What frightens
many people in Sunnyside

is the age of
some of these gang members...

9, 10, 11 years old.

And they've brought
a crime wave

to this small farming town.

The shooting
yesterday is the latest

in a series of incidents
that ended violently.

This weekend's tragic
gang-related homicide,

hitting so close to home.

Word on the street confirms

it was revenge-motivated.

It's getting way
too much out of hand.

These kids,
they got to stop and think

that a bullet's permanent.

Continue on I-82 East
for 30 miles.

I'm really hoping to get

a better picture
of the environment

that Evaristo was in at the
time this incident occurred,

um, and also
his involvement in the gangs.

In almost all of
my investigations, I start out,

first of all,
talking to the family.

The family members can give you
so much information

about the individual,
his habits.

How he behaved at home
can be extremely important.

Well, here's
some pictures of...

Oh, okay....probably right now
and when we were little.

Okay. Let me just glance
at these first.

Okay.
So this is you.

That's me. That's him.

-Junior and Vanessa?
-That's Vanessa.

Oh, very cute.

Yes.

And this must be Dad,
the kids.

Okay, this is Junior.

Is this after
he was incarcerated?

-Oh, yeah.
-Mm-hmm.

That's probably like
a couple years from now maybe.

Okay.

Is this another picture
of him here?

-Yeah. In prison, mm-hmm.
-Mm-hmm.

You were aware that Junior
was in the gang, correct?

Yes. Yes.

And so you talked
to him about this?

Oh, yes.
We...

I-I-I disagreed
with that 100%.

I wasn't...
You know, I didn't...

I didn't
like it at all, period.

Did he give you a reason
why he was doing it or...?

No.
I just think that he was young.

Were his friends
involved in it too?

-Oh, yeah.
-The ones he ran around with,

like, in middle school,
whatever,

they all became gang members.
Uh-huh.

But, like, family members
that we had, no.

So the... the victim,

did Junior
ever meet Jose or...?

That you know of?
-Well, now that I know of, no.

You didn't know?I didn't know him
until all this.

Do you know what gang
he supposedly belonged to?

Jose, from what I know,
they were like a family.

They were neutral.

Basically, they were older guys
that would hang out

with each other,
cousins, brothers,

and they would get along
with everybody.

And how I knew is that
their family got along

with the older guys that
my brother was involved with.

You know, I'm sure
you've given this a lot

of thought over the years.

What do you think
happened?

How do you think Junior
got pulled into this?

That's rattled my mind
for so many years

'cause I... there's just
no connection whatsoever.

Hello?

- Hi, Junior. This is Janell.
- Hi.

So, let's just start with
some general questions.

Your childhood,
where did you grow up?

She would leave for, like, days,
and she would leave us alone,

you know, and we were
from house to house,

apartment to apartment.

I would drink around the kids.

They... They would see it
because we... we'd get together,

me and my friends,

and we were always
going out and drinking.

And that bothered mijoa lot.

And I don't...
I see it, you know.

I know. I know what my kids
went through.

He was very close to me.

He was a mama's boy
all the way.

When I left Ruben,
he just feel apart.

He wanted his family together.
That's all.

...right over!

You need to start
staying out of trouble.

I mean, it's just get--

it's just getting to be
a habit all the time now. Well...

You'd think all this gang
bullshit and all this stuff,

you think it's gonna go...
be good for you?

You think those motherfuckers,

they gonna do
something for you?

They're not gonna do
nothing for you.

They're gonna take you to hell.

That's where
they're gonna take you.

How did it come to pass that

the police focused on
the defendant?

Two witnesses got
Evaristo convicted.

One was this informant,

and he comes in with a story

about having overheard Evaristo
boasting

that he had done the killing...

...and that's how he first
became a suspect.

And the other was...
was the girlfriend, Ofelia,

who claims to have gotten
a quick look at the gunman.

Once their case was based
on the victim's girlfriend,

she was so positive
that he was guilty.

She immediately
recognized the person

who had shot her boyfriend

and the father of her son,

and that person she identified

was Junior Salas.

Her testimony
and the fact that

"It was him, there,

that pulled the trigger"...

In the 1990s,

the population of
juvenile offenders

that were committed to adult
prisons was just unbelievable.

And so I think the climate
in the United States,

that affected
the judge's decision

toward harsher punishment.

The prosecution was able
to get a conviction

with no physical evidence

based exclusively

on the eye-witness testimony
of Ofelia.

Who was the lead
detective on the case?

Yeah, that was, uh,
Detective Jim Rivard.

Think he had done
quite a bit of work

targeting some
of the gangs there.

Think he had
a decent reputation.

And he actually
knew Evaristo,

had had a series of
bad encounters with him.

Evaristo was, um,
a troubled kid.

So, here's the problem
that I see.

We've got several
different witnesses

in very close proximity
to that crime scene,

yet some very
differing viewpoints

on the description
of the... the assailant.

Mm-hmm.

Could this be a witness
misidentification?

How are half of the witnesses
saying it's a juvenile

and the other half
are saying it's an adult?

And this is interesting.

A bunch of witnesses
reported hearing an argument.

One of the witnesses
specifically reports hearing

Ofelia use the term,
you know,

"Hey, Ricardo,
leave him alone."

Ofelia was asked on
the witness stand

if she knew anybody
named Ricardo.

She said no, no,
she knew no Ricardo.

I think we need to drill
down on all of these witnesses.

Why don't I take a second.
Let's put them up on the board.

-Yeah. -Okay, cool.
-Let's take a look.

I think the main thing

that we need to think about
is Saul Road.

This is the one area that,
the witnesses,

they're consistent on,

as they all saw the suspects
fleeing up Saul Road.

Bear with me here.
I'm certainly not an artist.

If we look at
where the car's at,

we've got Jose,
and he's on the passenger side.

Ofelia, right here.

The shooter is right here.

We have Michelle Cisneros,

and then we have the two
Perales brothers, right?

Yeah. Michelle is 12,
and the brothers are 9 and 10.

And then let's put in
Benito Martinez.

And Benito says
that the shooter was 25,

or it's an older person.

We need to find all of
these witnesses

and figure out what
they've got to say today.

It's always difficult
to locate witnesses...

...and then
to get them to talk,

especially if they think
they may be in trouble

for something
or something might come out.

We've been trying to track down
one of the eyewitnesses,

Benito Martinez,

and we went to one address

where we thought
it was his daughter.

She didn't know him.

We went to another address.

We're looking for
Benito Martinez Lopez.

The gentleman said
he didn't know him.

Then, after a few days,

we got kind of a mysterious
voicemail out of the blue.

We called him back.

He actually wants to talk to us.

Hello.
-Hello.

Hi.
I'm Janell Wagner.

Benito Martinez.

Hi, Benito.
Nice to meet you.

I'll be translating
for Benito.

Oh, great, great.
Appreciate that.

Now, where was he
the night of the crime?

Where was he at?

He said he was on the balcony,
on top.

Okay, so maybe he can
come show us where that...

where that is.
-Okay.

Up...
Up there, upstairs?

Okay.

The one on the very left.

Okay.
And then, from his statement,

he saw a person get out of the car.
Is that correct?

Yeah. He saw the person
get out of the car.

Okay. Does he know how old
that person was, about?

Appro--

He was over 18 years old,
he says.

-So an adult, a man?
-Yeah. Uh-huh.

Okay, well, thank you very much.
Really appreciate it.

-Thanks.
-Yes, thank you.

I'm on my way to go to

Michelle Cisneros'
mother's house,

where Michelle lived
at the time of the crime.

She was 12 years old.

She was one of the eyewitnesses

who gave a statement
about seeing it.

She was outside
in her backyard.

They just got home.

Michelle does not
live there anymore,

but her parents still do.

And I spoke with her mother.

She s-said repeatedly
that she believes

the wrong person, um,
was convicted of this crime.

But then she also, um, called
Michelle while I was there.

And Michelle said she would
really like to help.

She's just concerned about
the safety of her children.

But then Michelle also said
she was very happy

that somebody was
looking into this case.

Which was the Perales whose...
who gave the statement?

Mm-hmm.
That's, uh, Robert Anthony.

-In his case...
-He's 10 years old.

...I'm more interested
in what he heard

than... than what he saw,

his statement
about hearing an argument

that was in very close
proximity to Jose.

It'd be interesting
if he remembers

and...
and reaffirms that.

Okay.
I'm going to go into

this, um, jail here in Yakima

and talk to Robert Perales.

He's in jail
on unrelated charges.

The night of the shooting, you
were in Michelle's backyard.

Is that correct?

In your statement,
you said that you saw

an older person, not a kid.
Um...

You heard arguing and talking
before the shots were fired?

You know what I mean?

Robert was very clear,
and, you know, he came across

as being very honest,
very sincere in all this.

And he was clear to say that it
was definitely an adult he saw.

So his statement is consistent
with Benito's statement.

He saw an older guy
standing up there.

So did the other two
eyewitnesses

that were with Robert,

um, Michelle
and his little brother, Albert.

They...
They said the same thing.

There... There was no mention
of seeing kids.

That's pretty interesting.

Janell, we had talked about

trying to ascertain the height
at which the projectile

went into the truck

and the victim's body,

and were you able
to get that done?

Yeah, actually, that
was really interesting.

We had a forensic criminologist
re-create the scene,

and she has a really
interesting system.

She was able to get
the trajectory

so that it w-- it would show

how high
that handgun had to be.

We know Junior was 5 feet tall.

Our job, at this point,

is to figure out
how the bullet would have

traveled through
the victim's head.

So what I did is I went
to the autopsy report from 1995.

Even though this is a case
that happened years ago,

I was able to re-create

where these, um,
entrance wounds were.

So the first one is
on the right forehead.

What it did is it entered
the skull here.

I'm just gonna
insert this rod

through the right frontal
part of the skull,

and it's going kind of
from front to back.

And that would be
gunshot wound number one.

So I'm just gonna place this
in here for the time being

'cause we want
to try to re-create

elements of this scene

that are as close to
being accurate as possible.

The pink knot is to symbolize
the higher bullet, basically.

-Okay.
-And this is the lower bullet.

There's the forehead shot.
The head tips over.

And then the second shot
to the mandible area.

This is called
forward projection.

What we're doing is
we're taking the barrel

of the firearm
using a laser,

and the beam is
basically representing

the trajectory
of the bullet.

This is the angle.

What's interesting
is how high this is.

So, here, I'm looking
at 57 inches

to where the barrel
of the gun would be.Wagner: The barrel, right.

And how tall, again,

are we talking the defendant
in this case was?

The defendant
was 5 feet tall.

5 feet is right here.

So 5... Up a little bit.

Up a little bit.
Right there.

The gun is at 40...
So put your hand right here.

Straighten it out.

It's not impossible, but it's an
unusual way to hold a firearm.

It's not impossible.

But it would be...
it would be fairly high.

-Could he have done this?
-Could he have done this?

The answer is yes,

but does this reconstruction
affirmatively show

that he was the one that shot
the firearm in this event?

No.

This is telling us how,
not who.

Did you ever see Junior
with any weapons, a gun,

or were there ever guns
in this house?

-No.
-No.

There's never been
a weapon in my house

because I don't
even like weapons.

Junior's weapons were rocks.
No, i-it's the truth.

I mean,
I've been with Junior.

We... We've actually walked
to the store,

and let's say a different
gang member would pass by.

He would literally
pick up a rock

and just throw it at the car.

That was his weapons
was a rock.

Did you ever own
a weapon, a gun?

I thought I had read somewhere

where there was
an assault charge

that involved a weapon
of some sort

prior to this
Jose Arreola incident.

But did they search for a weapon
at that time

to see if you had one?

I mean, when you look at it,
it comes down to the weapon.

The one
they didn't recover.

Well, Ira and I are gonna
have to spend a-a lot of time.

I mean, this...
this is a deep dive.

The gumshoe detective
work, you know,

of putting the leather on the...
on the street, so to say...

Let the facts
lead you to the truth.

-Mm-hmm.
-And we have enough facts here.

I-I believe that we could
be led to the truth.

On my way to the Airway
Heights Correctional Facility

to go see Evaristo Salas
in prison.

And I like to interview people
face to face because, you know,

there's a lot to go
into interviewing them.

Uh, I like to watch
his nonverbal indicators.

I like to see some of his
response to my questions.

And I want to hear,
firsthand from him,

what he remembers
about this case.

Unfortunately,
we can't take the cameras

into the, uh, prison with us

'cause they have strict rules.

I can't even take a phone
or my recorder.

So, a lot of this stuff,
I'm gonna have to remember it

and recall from memory.

I'm going in there with an open
mind, giving him a 50/50 shot.

And he doesn't have to
convince me

if he's telling
the truth or not.

I just want him
to tell his story.

And I could determine if he's
telling me the truth or not.

Evaristo told me
about a shooting

that happened
prior to all of this

where he was accused
of shooting at a guy.

Now, Salas told me
that he never shot at him

because he never carried a gun.

But that's when I saw some
of the nonverbal indicators

that told me that
he was lying to me.

And so I didn't call him
out initially on that.

I just wait and kept
talking to him.

And then I let him talk about
some of the other activities,

gang activities
he had been involved in,

and he said the only
thing they ever did

was they threw rocks
through people's windows,

rival gang members,
they would, you know,

throw rocks and break
their car windows out.

So I challenged him on, "Have
you ever fired a gun, period?"

And he said, well, he fired a
shotgun once with some friends.

That was the only time
he fired a gun.

So I hit him,
"Well, you lied to me.

You told me you've
never fired a gun.

So why did you lie about that?"

So he claimed he didn't
remember that.

But I know, who would forget the
first time they ever shot a gun?

And so I asked, well,
did he ever a fire a handgun,

pointing the gun like this?

And he did something
with his hand

where he held his left hand,

I'm sorry, his right hand out,

and he kind of cuffed it
with his left hand,

and he said,
"I never touched a gun.

I never fired a gun.
I'm being truthful."

And I said, "Well, why
was you just holding

that gun in your hand then?"

He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "I saw it.
I saw you holding a gun.

I know you've held a gun before.
I know you've fired a gun."

And I said, "If you keep lying
to me, I'ma get up,

and I'ma walk outta here.

I'm not gonna deal
with you at all

because I know
you're lying to me."

He drops his head.

He looks back up.

And he said, "Okay, I'ma
tell you the truth."

But he said, "I don't
want this to get out

because I don't want
anybody to know about this

because they're gonna think
I'm just some bad gang-banger,

and they're gonna believe
I did that murder."

So he said he did fire a gun.

It was a .25.
It was a, um, .25 Ruger.

"But I just fired in the air
because I was afraid

I might hit somebody."

I pushed him hard,
and he got adamant.

He started beating
on the desk saying,

"Look, I did not kill Jose."

We believe that they
caught the right guy.

And now he's playing
mister victim?

Well, who's the victim
here, you know?

It's... It's my mom.
It's us.

We can't see my brother
no more.

It's... Nothing's gonna
bring him back.

When he was younger,
he had these, um, buck teeth,

and, uh, we named him
Bugs Bunny,

and he had that nickname,
Bugs, since he was young.

He was really adventurous,
riding bikes,

BMX,
climbing up the hills,

climbing down
from the mountain.

We had some good times.

Sorry.

I don't remember anybody
viewing Bugs like,

"Something's going on there.
We got to watch out.

Maybe he's betraying us."

No, he was actually
very friends with everybody.

I remember
going to his funeral.

Nobody was talking.
Nobody knew who did it.

But there was no, like,
real push to find out.

And that story...

It was so quickly here,

and then it quickly left.

Police weren't really
able to speculate

on what the motive was.

They said, "Well, either,
you know,

he was... you know,
had a beef with someone,

and they're settling
the score, or, you know,

maybe this is gang-related."

It was just another murder.

It's like, "Yeah, life is
pretty cheap, you know."

People die,
and then life goes on.

Who could do this
to my brother, you know?

Especially a... a young father
with barely having

a 2-month-old baby,
you know?

It was just like, "Why?"

How long
had you guys been friends

before he got murdered?

We were pretty tight
for about the last year,

two years
before he got murdered.

And we used to party
and drink together.

Okay. Was he kind of like
a pretty boy, or...?

Yeah.
Good guy, but he was a player.

There's a house
in, um, Sunnyside,

some girl that Joe knew,

he would party there
sometimes.

He would party there
sometimes.

-Yeah, yeah.
-Okay.

I think she was married
to a state patrol.

-Oh, okay.
-So that's how Joe was.

Joe... He kind of
messed around with...

He messed around with
all kinds of women.

-Married women too.
-Yeah.

Do you think somebody could
have took him out because,

you know, they caught him
cheating with their wife

or something like that?
-I don't know.

All I know is I heard that

these kids killed him,
and, um...

Did you know Junior
enough to know

if he would do
something like that?I didn't even know Junior.

So did him and Bugs
know each other?No because they...

Did they bump into each other at
any time while you were there?

The day before he got killed,
we walked right by them,

and they... they didn't...
they didn't...

they didn't
say hi to each other,

so I don't think
they knew each other.

We all kind of shuffled
by each other, and, um...

But there was no... no static
or nothing going on between us.

Did he do anything for somebody
to want to kill him?

No, I don't know nothing about that.
Okay.

It turns out
Jose was questioned

in the stabbing death
in 1994

of Pedro Cargañes.

Given the relationship
to gang culture,

a rumor could have easily
started that he was involved

even if he had
no involvement whatsoever.

Somebody might have been seeking
retribution, uh, for that.

Can you help us
with this case

where Bugs was killed?

You know, what was on the
street, or what do you know?

You know, aside from rumor.
-Well, at the time...

All I heard was...

originally thinking
it was a retaliation.

Okay. And it was close
to an anniversary

to a previous death the year
before from another gang, right?

Right.There was no information
from the other clique to say.

Usually, you'll hear.
-Somebody has taken respo--

They're taking ownership
of it...

-Yeah, exactly.
-...to... for bragging rights.

And there was none. And there was none.
Got you.

So it could have...
could have...

didn't have to be
gang-related.

It could have been
something else.

Could have been just
that an incident

just happened
at that time too, you know?

Well, I-I don't think
it was random.

-Yeah.
-Okay.

I really don't think
it was random. Mm-hmm.

I don't think somebody just
flipped somebody off,

and all of a sudden,
boom, you're dead.

-Mm-hmm.
-But for as little information

that came out
about what happened,

that's shocking that... that
they would have got this guy.

We're just trying
to find out the truth.Yeah.

You know, we don't know
if the cops are bad

or somebody else is bad.
-Yeah. Who knows?

We don't know what's going on, but
we gonna try to find out the truth.

That's it. You know what,
the... the cops were so,

like I said, o--
th-they were overwhelming.

So anyways, so good luck
with all that.

Thank you.Hopefully it turns out
good for him

and they let him out
and...

if... 'cause I don't think
anybody and their mother

believes that guy had anything
to do with it.

Mm-hmm.

-Take...
-Take a left?

Uh-huh.

So it's this little
store right here?

Yep. Yes.
That is very close.

So this is how we used to go
to the store all the time,

back and forth
to our house.

So this is where Junior was
the night of the incident?

Was the night
that the incident.

And Sylvia Siller,
who worked there...

Yes. ...um, testified
that she saw him there

that evening, that he came there.
Mm-hmm.

'Cause she would always
give them free burritos

that she had left over,

and so they would go and just
hang out with her there.

This is where we came
all the time since we...

-They knew us.
-They knew us.

So did you...
Did you know

or at least recognize
this Sylvia?

-Yes. Oh, yeah.
-Oh, yes. We knew who she was.

We know who...
We know who she is.Yes.

I'm heading out to try
to contact another witness,

Sylvia Siller.

She was the alibi
witness for Junior.

She worked at the 7-Eleven.

And she's the one who testified
that she saw Junior

at the store that night

and that she's the one who
told him about the shooting.

Hi. Excuse me,
are you Sylvia Siller?

Um, my name's Janell Wagner,

and I just wanted to ask you
a couple questions

about that case
that you were a witness to

like 20 years ago.

I know. I know.

Okay. Um, just tell me
what happened that night

that you remember.

I worked the swing shift
usually... usually,

and that's when he would go in.
Yeah.

Every day,
that's what time he'd go in,

him
and his little friend,

and they would just have
a burrito and pop

and stand there
and bullshit with me.

And then, um,
I got a phone call,

and they told me that
there had been a shooting.

And...
-So who called you?

My mom called and told me
that there was a shooting

because it was right down
the road from where she lived.

Oh, okay.So she called me at work
and told me,

and, um, Junior was
right there with me.

He didn't look like someone
who had just shot someone.

Yeah. He was eating a
burrito and drinking a pop

like he did every day.

There was one question
one time that said,

"Well, maybe because of the time
that you had your break

and the time you
called your mom,

that maybe he had time
to shoot the person

and then
run to your store."

The shooting happened
on the other side of town...

-Yeah.
-...from where I was at.

I mean,
I didn't call my mom.

My mom called me when it...
when it happened.

So, I mean, he was in the store
with me when she called me.

He was just a little kid.

I mean, he'd come in every day.
-Yeah.

He was, like, someone who
you had to care, you know.

And so you testified
at trial...

-Mm-hmm.
-...that he did that.

They just made me feel like
I was...

my opinion didn't matter

'cause, I mean, I've got
my past too, you know?

I was young
at one time too,

and I'd done my share of,
you know, whatever,

but so they made me feel
like my opinion didn't matter

'cause of what I'd done
in the past, you know?

But I didn't care
what they said, you know,

or what they thought
or whatever.

I mean, I know... I know that
he was in the store with me.

At this point, I think there's
one witness in this case

that matters... Ofelia.
-Yeah.

She claims to have gotten
a quick look at the gunman,

and she really strikes me
as key to this,

to the extent that she is
willing to expand

a little bit
on the identification

and how
she came to make it.

It might be
incredibly helpful.

We also need to look
at her activities

shortly after the crime,
right?

The police investigated Ofelia
getting custody of the truck

that she was driving
that night out of the impound

and then getting the truck back
and then cleaning the truck.

Hello?

Hello.
Is this Denny Morrow?

Yes, it is.

Hi, Denny.
This is Janell Wagner.

I have a couple questions.
Okay.

We know the victim's girlfriend
ultimately got the truck.

Do you recall
when she did that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, 'cause I know
it was only a few days,

I think maybe four days
after impound

that she came and got it.

So, you cleaned it up?

There wasn't much
to clean.

I-I will say that I did find
these pieces of bone in there.

I don't know if it was from
the skull or from what.

Kind of freaks you out. Two... Two pieces of bone,
little chips.

Kind of freaked me out.
-Okay.

I just grabbed them, and I just
said goodbye, and I threw it.

-Yeah. Yeah.
-I got rid of it.

-So you're saying goodbye...
-Yeah.

...you're saying goodbye
to a piece of Bugs.

-Yeah, a piece of Joe.
-Yeah.

You were responsible for

processing evidence
and things like that?

I was the one that was tasked

with the crime-scene
investigations.

Crime scene, okay.

I would do the processing
of the scene,

looking for evidence.

Okay.

Based on your report,

can you explain to me
what did you document?

According to this report
that I filled out,

it looks like there was no
authorization for that release.

In these type of cases,

the only person that's
authorized to release that truck

is the lead detective
or the prosecutor.

Had you processed that vehicle
prior to it being released?

According to this report, I had
not processed that vehicle.

You had not processed the vehicle.
Correct.

So we don't know if any...
there was any other

live rounds
in that vehicle.

You could have maybe
pulled a slug

out of that vehicle or
something, right? Sure.

There could have been
some more evidence

in that vehicle, right? Sure, of course. Of course.

I mean, this is a key
piece of evidence.

I would say themajor piece
of evidence, yes.

It is the major piece of
evidence, absolutely. Yes.

So I want to...
I want to show you

this incident report
right quick.

It says investigation
of obstructing

police officers ongoing.

So they got number-one
offender is Ofelia,

correct, white female, right,
with the date of birth.

That's what it looks like,
yes.

And what is the charge
you see on there?

Rendering
criminal assistance.

And it has a parentheses
under that, what?

-Homicide, yes.
-It has what?

-Homicide.
-Homicide.

So she became some
sort of target

of this investigation
four days

after this investigation,
right?

That's what it appears like, yes.
Okay.

On November 18th,

four days after the shooting
happened,

Ofelia, the girlfriend,
retrieved the truck,

brought it to another
towing company,

had it all cleaned out
and the window removed.

Would that have maybe influenced
how credible you saw her?

Yeah.
It would have me.

And it problem would have
a lot of other jurors

on that trial too.

Detective Rivard had,
in his notes,

he's going to pursue
charges against her

for rendering
criminal assistance.

Now, if that would have been
brought out at trial,

would that been
an important factor to you?

I think
it would have been.

If you read the transcript
of the trial,

you know that we weren't
made aware of any of this.

The key piece to this
is Ofelia.

I mean, no doubt.

Really, like, what happened?

It's 20 years later.

You're...
You're now 44, 45 years old.

Right.
How sure are you?

How sure were you?
What really happened?

All right, brother,
hey, I just want to make sure

we got our ducks in a row here,
so this is Ofelia's?

Yeah.
Let's approach real slow.

Mm-hmm.

Beware of the dog.

Well...

no trespassing
on that house, I think.

Let's see what we get here.

Oh, well.

Well, do you think
she would have talked

if we wouldn't have
overwhelmed her?

-I think so.
-Well, we don't know.

-Yeah.
-I mean, that I'm...

I don't know that I want
to try to make that opinion

because, hey,
you know the people

that you think are gonna talk
don't talk,

and the people you don't think
are gonna say a damn word

are the ones that throw you
the damn confession.

You know that.I usually get everybody
to talk though,

one way or the other.
-Well... Well...

I get them.
I'm telling you something,

when I walked over to the side,
she was getting ready to talk.

And when you stepped back over,
she cut her eyes at you,

and then she kind of
calmed it back down because...

Yeah, but we don't know what she
was gonna talk about either.

Well, but... You have to be...
You have to be careful, man.

Yeah, but, see, what I was
gonna do though,

I was gonna use you and say, "Hey,
look here. He doesn't believe it."

I mean...
-No, you did that.

"I-I believe that, you
know, he is guilty." Yep.

And then we could have fed
off of each other and said,

"Hey, look here, you know,
this and that." Yeah.

So sometimes, you know,
I'm not criticizing you,

but sometimes we have
to slow it down.

You know, I thought we had
a-a great opportunity there.

But as sometimes
is the case,

she didn't want to talk.

But I think she did
want to talk.

I think
she wanted to share.

But she got
a little spooked.

We have no idea what
she might have told us,

and it's just
unfortunate because

I really was... really was
wanting her to talk to us.

Well,
she did tell us something.

And th-- she told us the most
important thing,

that she really felt
Salas was guilty.

She felt like
he's the guy that did it.

So she said that much.

Ofelia stands by her story
that Evaristo did it.

But there is one more lead
we can follow...

find the informant that set
off the chain reaction

that led to Evaristo.

That's a good point
because, to me,

he is just as critical
as Ofelia.

This informant comes in
with a story about

having overheard
Evaristo boasting

that he had
done the killing.

This was a beer party.

People were sitting around
drinking, getting high.

-Right.
-And that's how he first

came to the attention
of law enforcement.

Do you have any idea
why this confidential informant

would say you were
the one who did it?

Ofelia
then identifies Evaristo,

and that's really it.

Evaristo
was not a suspect before.

Nobody picked him
out of anything.

Nobody identified him fleeing
or coming or going.

This informant was the key

to IDing Evaristo.

So I think
we have one goal now...

find the informant.