Original subtitles

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- I say we just knock it.

[dramatic music]

- she's taking off!

- When you're tracking down and apprehending

a murder suspect,

you have to be prepared for anything.

Making a successful arrest

requires a lot of planning and careful execution.

Tonight, on "the first 48: Critical minutes"...

- She makes the phone call. He shows up.

[phone ringing] we're on him.

- A sting operation comes to a head.

[siren wailing]

- she's gonna run.

She smashed into a car.

- A high speed chase goes off the rails.

- Put your hands up.

- She's way more involved in this than she's telling.

- And a love triangle hands detectives an opportunity.

- [speaking spanish]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

- sting operations can be very dangerous

for both detectives and the informant.

In tulsa,

when a man was shot in a motel parking lot,

detective jason white undertook

a highly coordinated undercover operation

to ensnare the subject.

[ominous music]

[indistinct radio chatter]

- what do you got?

♪ ♪

- somebody pulled up beside this white car.

♪ ♪

fired shots into it.

Killed the driver.

Injured the passenger.

- Is she gonna live? - She looks pretty good.

Male narrator: The female victim,

33-year-old amber stevens,

is at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the neck.

[indistinct radio chatter]

♪ ♪

narrator: 57-year-old richard parker

was known as pizo to his friends and family.

He was a devoted father and grandfather

who had struggled with drug addiction for many years.

[solemn music]

[camera shutter clicks]

- he's got his cell phone clutched in his hand.

♪ ♪

let's get him out of the car.

Narrator: Pizo has been shot five times.

[ominous music]

- it looks like a .22 in his pocket.

He must not have seen it coming.

♪ ♪

I wanna know about video that's in the surrounding area.

Narrator: Patrol officers check with the motel manager

about security cameras in the complex.

♪ ♪

- all right.

♪ ♪

- this is kind of a horseshoe complex.

People are watching and seeing

who's rolling in here and stuff

because they're always on the lookout

for police and so forth.

[ominous music]

- everybody here's got a ringside seat

for what just happened.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- that's her.

[intriguing music]

♪ ♪

- a guy named jelani.

- I'm glad we're finally here and we're talking.

You know all the players here.

And therefore, you're in a really bad spot.

♪ ♪

your honesty is gonna be

what decides what I'm gonna do with you.

Ok?

♪ ♪

- who did he shoot?

- A guy named jelani. I had heard that--

narrator: She says jelani

recently got out of the hospital

and was angry at pizo about the shooting.

- I felt like I was in the middle

because I was friends with pizo.

And I was friends with jelani.

- Ok. And then what happened?

Narrator: She says the day of the murder,

she saw pizo get into his car with a woman.

- Pizo called me out to the car.

And I was standing there and talking to him.

I seen a guy running towards me.

And I stepped back. [sobbing]

and that's when he shot pizo.

[sobbing]

♪ ♪

- who's he?

♪ ♪

- I don't know.

♪ ♪

factually, I did not see his face.

I'm not saying that it wasn't jelani.

But I can't tell you that it was jelani either.

- You know exactly who shot him.

Do I need to read you your rights and take you to jail?

- No, that's not what I'm-- - I mean, I'm in--

- why are you being so [bleep] towards me?

- Because I've been wasting my--

- I'm trying to help you.

And pizo was my friend too!

You understand that?

Pizo was my friend.

- All right.

The word on the streets is is that you helped set this up.

[dramatic music]

- nobody's ever asked me to set anybody up.

I didn't call pizo over there.

He just showed up.

[ominous music]

- jelani, did he give you his number?

♪ ♪

narrator: White finds jelani's number

and something else.

- [breathing heavily]

- is that meth?

[tense music]

- ok. I'll be back in a minute.

Let me see if we can get this stuff tested.

What do you think about that?

- We put her in. - For the meth.

- What's our advantage to putting her in jail?

- We know where she is.

- I mean, she'll stay in there.

But that doesn't get us jelani.

[tense music]

narrator: They head back to the interview

with a new strategy.

- You know what we're looking for.

- I do. - How do we get there?

- Would you be willing to call him and set him up?

[tense music]

♪ ♪

what you have in your purse is methamphetamine.

The way you can go home tonight

without ever seeing this ever again

is you make that pretext phone call to him

out there somewhere,

and he shows up, and we latch on to him that way.

♪ ♪

you understand?

♪ ♪

- yes.

[dark music]

♪ ♪

narrator: The next day...

♪ ♪

- she makes the phone call. He shows up.

We're on him.

[phone ringing]

- I still have the upset stomach that comes with these--

these deals.

- Yeah.

- Let's do it.

[intense music]

♪ ♪

narrator: They set up the phone

to record the call.

- You ready for her to give it a shot?

♪ ♪

- all right, stick that in your ear.

♪ ♪

[phone beeping]

[line trilling]

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- mm-hmm.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: Jelani says he'll come by

later that afternoon.

♪ ♪

- yeah.

[phone beeps]

♪ ♪

- all right.

I need you to keep me posted.

Give me a call every hour.

- Ok. - Be careful.

♪ ♪

narrator: Meanwhile, white and leatherman

keep an eye on the woman's motel

to see if jelani pays her a visit.

- He sounded like he really wanted to come and see her.

[suspenseful music]

[indistinct radio chatter]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- that's interesting.

Narrator: The fugitive team decides to follow the car.

- Let's kind of go and get into the mix.

[intense music]

♪ ♪

- this could certainly turn into a pursuit.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- that's him right there.

[tires squeal]

♪ ♪

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

come out the driver's side!

♪ ♪

pop that door open.

♪ ♪

start walking backwards towards my voice.

Don't be reaching on those pants.

Stop. Stop.

Now you walk towards the guy in the red shirt.

♪ ♪

all right. That's the way we like it.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- phone number? - I don't have one.

♪ ♪

- if y'all feel like y'all got some evidence

to take me to jail on some bull[bleep],

then let's go to jail, man.

I'm not finna sit here and talk to y'all

about some [bleep] that I ain't got nothing to do with.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- go ahead.

- Get that [bleep] camera out my face.

[soft piano music]

- turn around.

♪ ♪

- the ability to turn or flip a witness

is one of the most crucial skills a detective can learn.

Dallas detectives put this to use

when they found a man stabbed to death in his apartment.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

- one of the worst decomposed bodies I've been at.

♪ ♪

- [sighs]

- we'll get him out of there shortly here.

I mean, it's really gonna--

we're gonna stir up that bloody, murky water.

- The smell's about to get worse in here.

- You got him facedown?

[indistinct chatter]

- ok, hold on. Let me get his arm.

- Yeah, right there. - Hard to say.

But here's a significant one.

So there's one, two,

three, four, five, six.

They could be stab wounds.

- Yeah. Could be.

♪ ♪

- come here. Look what he showed me.

This--yeah, this kind of makes sense.

He was standing right there.

Blood splatter, you know?

Which would explain no blood splatter there

in those areas.

That's where the body was.

[unsettling music]

- hey, duggan? - Yeah?

♪ ♪

his name is leonel vallo--valle.

[solemn music]

narrator: Leonel valle,

an immigrant from mexico,

worked as a dj at a nightclub

and was an avid pool player.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

- we think it's him.

[dramatic music]

when the people came in, both deadbolts were locked.

So whoever left left with a key,

the suspect did.

♪ ♪

- [sighs]

right now we're just looking for anything.

[sighs]

[indistinct chatter]

[intriguing music]

narrator: Detectives find a safe

on the kitchen counter.

- Well, I think it was right here.

- Why do you think that?

- 'cause there's nothing else there.

- That could make some sense.

- Apparently they pulled it out like this.

- Rick.

We were able to look at those mounting holes

in the back of that safe. - Yeah?

- Shined the light in one, looked in the other.

- Yeah? - Looks empty in there.

I don't think anything's in it.

- Yeah, that's empty.

Got what they needed and left.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- yeah, you got two good prints here, man.

- I know.

[camera shutter clicks]

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- [speaking spanish]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- no?

♪ ♪

[door opens]

[door closes]

- you got--when you were on the safe,

she was sitting there.

You know, she tensed up. You know?

- Mm-hmm. - And then when she--

before that and after that, she was like--

[whistles]

she thought she was in the clear.

- I think it's time that I dropped the bomb on her.

[door opens]

ok, marsela.

[speaking spanish]

narrator: With the first 48 ticking down,

ibarra tells marsela

that they found her fingerprints on the safe.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- he said--

- marsela. Marsela.

- I think she's way more involved in this

than she's letting us-- than she's telling.

♪ ♪

- she's about to get on the phone.

- Ok.

♪ ♪

- I think it's interesting that she's on the cell phone talking

to probably her current boyfriend.

- I asked her, "is there another guy

"with the same, similar relationship that you had

with leonel?"

and she says, "no."

- she's actually been with gerardo, her ex-boyfriend,

on and off for a year.

♪ ♪

can you get a little more info on gerardo?

♪ ♪

- see you soon. - Ok.

[speaking spanish]

- ok.

- Mm...

[dramatic music]

- she says that he's the one that did it!

- What? - Gerardo!

He just said--he just told her. - Gerardo did it?

- Yes!

[dramatic music]

got you.

- Looking, and...

He doesn't have a record.

No criminal history at all.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- marsela's agreed to show us

where her boyfriend threw the murder weapon.

♪ ♪

right here?

♪ ♪

how about here? On the left?

- Sí. - Sí?

- [speaking spanish]

- ok. Go over there where the benches are.

- Go ahead. Show me.

♪ ♪

- she says that where the duck's at right here.

She says he just threw it.

[indistinct chatter]

[dramatic music]

[birds chirping]

♪ ♪

- knife right there.

♪ ♪

- fantastic.

This is great.

♪ ♪

[speaking spanish]

- is he gonna be suspicious

of her calling work instead of his cell phone?

- No, she's done it before. - Ok.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- [speaking spanish]

uh-huh. Gerardo.

Ok.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- sí.

- [speaking indistinctly]

- ok. Yeah.

I'm getting confirmation to you

just as she's talking on the phone.

- Ok. We can go right now.

♪ ♪

- [groans]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[radio beeps] - we got him.

- 10-4. Good job.

Ok.

- Ok.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- [sighs] let's get it going.

Buenas tardes.

[speaking spanish]

- mm-hmm.

- [clears throat]

- mm-hmm. - Ok?

- Ok.

- Um...

[somber music]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

- give us a moment. - Ok.

[door closes]

- [speaking spanish]

♪ ♪

hm?

♪ ♪

- [speaking spanish]

- ooh. Got it.

- What'd he say? [snaps]

- [speaking spanish]

[dark dramatic music]

huh?

♪ ♪

- wow.

♪ ♪

- neither one of them had much of a criminal history at all.

Gerardo was in love,

infatuated with marsela.

And he didn't wanna share her.

Basically up to this point,

decent people.

All of a sudden, they're gonna do something drastic like this.

Gonna spend the rest of their lives probably in prison.

[emotional piano music]

so it's kind of sad.

It appears

the motive was pretty much love.

♪ ♪

- in this next case from tulsa, I was called to a scene

where a former marine was gunned down

in broad daylight on the suspect's front lawn,

and it led to one of the most unbelievable apprehensions

I've ever been involved in.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Craig was shot four times

in his chest, hand, and legs.

[camera shutter clicking]

♪ ♪

- seriously?

♪ ♪

- ok.

Narrator: Witnesses say the shooter fled

in a dark vehicle with a paper license plate.

♪ ♪

- all right, nicole. Have a seat in the front.

♪ ♪

gonna have to type a search warrant for the house.

Narrator: Detectives frazier and ritter

take nicole downtown

while the team waits for a search warrant.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- all right, nicole.

What happened leading up to all this?

- My buddy craig come to my house a day ago

and said that this girl, sarah,

took his bike, a backpack,

$500, his bank card from the hotel room.

Narrator: Nicole says sarah,

the woman craig claims stole his belongings,

recently spent the night with him

at a local hotel.

- And when he woke up, all of his stuff was gone.

So he asked me if I would give him a ride over there

to sarah's house so he could try to get his stuff back.

Craig gets out of the car.

Goes up and knocks on the door.

- Ok. - Nobody answers.

He walks back to the car,

and he sees sarah's car coming down the street.

Narrator: She says sarah drove up to the house

with a teenage boy in the passenger seat.

[dramatic music]

- she stops. They talk.

He was just asking, you know, for his stuff back.

And she's like, "no."

and then that's when that kid got out of the car.

- Went in? - And then went into the house.

- Ok.

- He come back out with the gun,

and then he started shooting.

I didn't know what to do.

And then the guy went over

and got into the car with sarah

and took off.

- And what kind of car was that?

- It was a black suv.

I'm not sure what kind it was.

- Ok.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[keys clacking]

- jeremy campbell.

♪ ♪

ooh, she's got warrants!

And she's on file for homicide.

Narrator: 32-year-old sarah helton

was previously convicted of forgery, theft,

and accessory to murder.

- So we've got two of the three identified

but not our shooter.

Narrator: In jeremy's records,

they find a report from four years ago.

♪ ♪

- officers believe that jeremy campbell

was giving instructions to his son, william,

to break into multiple vehicles.

William campbell, 12 years of age.

Narrator: In 2011, jeremy was convicted

of contributing to the delinquency of a minor,

his son, william.

- Dad, jeremy, was telling william, son,

to go break windows out and steal stuff from inside.

It's crazy.

This kid, william, who's 12 at the time,

and with his age now,

that would match our shooting suspect.

♪ ♪

- police say 17-year-old william dane campbell

shot and killed craig wingard Sunday afternoon.

Campbell and 32-year-old sarah nicole helton

drove away.

Police say they want to arrest the two

as soon as possible.

[phone ringing]

narrator: Four days into the investigation...

- Homicide.

Narrator: A local car dealer calls.

- Doggone it.

Narrator: She says they recently sold

a black suv to sarah,

who failed to make the payments.

♪ ♪

- ok. And what is it?

♪ ♪

- hey, matt!

- Hey. Hang on a second.

- Get off the phone. I got hot stuff.

♪ ♪

- [laughs] you say it was stolen?

Narrator: According to the dealer,

sarah stole back the repossessed suv.

- Well, if we find the car, we will get it back to you.

♪ ♪

- she stole it back?

- Yeah, she stole it back, disabled the gps.

- Aww!

Looking for a pontiac torrent.

[indistinct chatter]

- now we know what to look for.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- she doesn't realize what she's up against

'cause we do not give up.

And we don't forget.

- I'll take the west end.

- I'll take the east side.

- Where's the torrent, damn it?

♪ ♪

narrator: Fives miles away...

♪ ♪

narrator: Detectives leatherman and white

spot a torrent.

♪ ♪

- sweet.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- damn it!

♪ ♪

- I was not worried at all that we lost sarah.

We're good at what we do. We're gonna find her.

It may be a few days later.

But we're not gonna stop knocking on doors.

We're not gonna stop checking the trace.

And at some point in time, we're gonna find you.

[dark music]

[siren wailing]

- I'm on it.

Narrator: The team gets a break.

[indistinct radio chatter]

- sergeant locker and frazier, we got eyes on him.

Narrator: William is spotted near a convenience store.

[siren wailing]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- suspect and vehicle have been taken into custody.

♪ ♪

- this is--now here's the deal, man.

I mean, you got a smile on your face and stuff.

The honest to god's truth is

there's a lot of people outside that day.

Ok?

Everybody saw what happened.

But there's gotta be reasons why.

Right?

[soft music]

man, this is gonna be your one and only shot.

♪ ♪

- ok.

- Well, I went to a store with my stepmom, sarah,

and pulled back up to the house.

Soon as we pulled up,

dude popped up at the car window.

Him and my stepmom, sarah,

you know, they talking-- really kind of arguing.

He got to tripping.

He was saying, "I want my money.

Where's my backpack?"

I went inside to get my phone.

He took her car keys out of the car.

And he was trying to take her car.

And I came back outside

with the rifle.

And I told him three times

to give us back the keys.

Each time he kept saying, "you're not gonna shoot.

You're not gonna shoot." - ok.

- And then, so, yeah.

- So then what?

- [exhales]

- we gotta go through the whole thing, man.

So then what? - All right.

And then, so I pulled the trigger, you know?

I fired off about eight to nine shots.

I'm not for sure.

[ominous music]

I wasn't trying to kill the man,

or I'd have hit him all in his face.

I was trying to get our keys back.

- Well, you shot him through the heart.

That's pretty--

- I wasn't even-- hey, I just shot.

♪ ♪

- ok.

When you shot the first time, what'd he do?

- I think I missed.

- Ok. - [chuckles]

I think I missed.

- The second time, what'd he do?

- He stood there.

- What about the third time you shot him?

- He stood there. He was eatin' 'em.

- He was eating 'em?

- I guess. I don't know.

He just stood there, like...

♪ ♪

- is your dad... - Yeah.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- [bleep].

He's already confessed.

- Yeah, man. It's good.

- Much more than I thought we were gonna get.

- I didn't think you were gonna get anything.

- I didn't either.

- [laughs]

- that's my first murder confession right there.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- oh, we might get lucky.

- [bleep].

Narrator: For the second time in two weeks,

sarah's vehicle is spotted.

- You don't want me to stop her?

- She's gonna run.

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[indistinct radio chatter]

- she smashed into a car.

♪ ♪

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

[tires screeching]

[siren wailing] [indistinct radio chatter]

♪ ♪

- what the [bleep] is wrong with you?

- Tay tay's-- - geez!

- Thank you so much. Oh, my god.

- Thank you so much? - He's gonna kill me.

- What are you running for? - He [bleep] jumped at me.

I couldn't stop. There was no brakes.

Please, I need to talk to you, please.

- Hey, you need to calm down. - No, he's gonna kill my kids.

- Listen to me. Listen to me.

- Oh, my god! Please don't let him shoot me.

[hyperventilating]

- calm down. Miss...

[dramatic music]

- during a chase with a homicide suspect,

ultimately, your goal is to get that person into custody.

But we've gotta do it safely.

You have to keep in mind,

are we pushing this person into a situation

where they're gonna be dangerous to the public?

But at the same time,

getting sarah into custody

was very important, a, to the public safety,

b, to the investigation.

And then once it finally ended,

everything went, you know, the best that it could,

and she was taken into custody safely.

- Listen to me.

- You need to calm down

so that you can tell them what's going on here.

- [sobbing] please, please, please.

He'll shoot me.

[siren wailing]

[horns honking]

- she's saying there's another guy in there,

tay tay, that had a gun to her head.

[ominous music]

- she's the only one in the car.

- She started saying, "oh, he had a gun to my head.

He had a gun to my head. He was telling me to drive."

- oh, my god.

Please don't take my babies.

♪ ♪

- shut up. Thank god.

Have you guys found tay tay? I tell you--

narrator: Sarah claims that a man named tay tay

forced her to run from the police.

- So he was in the car during the chase?

- Yeah, he was laying kind of in the backseat like this.

And he had the gun right on the back of my head.

- Where did he go? - He jumped.

We--I don't know if he jumped or rolled or what,

but when the car was going like this,

he--the door opened.

- And he just rolled right out and got away?

- I don't know. I couldn't even--

I couldn't keep control of anything at that point.

♪ ♪

- you were the only one in that car.

No tay tay. - Yeah, that's--

- that's crazy. - No.

- Yeah, it's--what? - No.

There is a tay tay in the car the whole time.

- Ok.

Ok, we're gonna start from the beginning.

On July 5th... - Yes.

- Tell me what happened that day.

Narrator: She claims the victim came to her house

to collect on a debt owed to tay tay.

- So we're trying to basically filter through the bull[bleep]

and find out exactly why all this happened.

Ok? - First--

- just listen.

It has nothing to do with a debt.

It has zero to do with it. - That's not--

- I already talked to william.

[ominous music]

- this is your only opportunity.

You tell us the truth, things may get better for you.

But if you sit here and lie, we're gonna leave.

- I'm telling you what jeremy's going to tell you, ok?

- Ok. - What do you mean

you're telling us what jeremy telling you?

- This is what he told me to tell you.

He thinks he's gonna get in trouble

and charged, and all this stuff.

- Who, jeremy? - Yeah.

- So everything you've told us is not true.

It's what jeremy-- - it is--a lot of it is true.

- Ok, but not 100% of it. - No.

Narrator: Sarah admits there was no tay tay involved.

- You know how you said

jeremy's scared he's gonna get in trouble?

And that he's telling you to lie for him?

Both: He's in trouble.

- Ok. - Doesn't matter.

- He's been arrested too.

- Ok.

- So it's time to stop being scared of him.

And tell this detective the truth.

- I sure will. - Ok.

- I met craig at chris's house. - Ok.

- Down the road from jeremy's. - Ok.

- Went to the hilton airport. - Airport.

Ok. Keep going. You're doing good.

- Ok.

When I got there, jeremy had been calling my phone

and saying all kinds of crazy stuff.

- So what do you-- - and he told me,

"you better bring some money home,

and we better roll that dude."

- ok. - Anyhow.

- So he says you better roll him,

you better bring some money home.

- Right.

And I said, "ok, I'll rob him.

I'll take his stuff."

- so... - Ok.

The day that he got shot...

- And you knew why he was there.

- Absolutely. - Ok.

To get his stuff back. - Right.

Narrator: She claims craig took her car keys

and refused to give them back.

- And then when william-- he come out of the house,

and he shot him.

[sobbing]

when the shots stopped,

william got in the car, and he said,

"mom, just go. Just go."

- where did you stay

between the murder and the car chase?

♪ ♪

that was, like, a week.

- When all this stuff goes down,

are you willing to testify to jeremy's involvement in this?

[suspenseful music]

- absolutely.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- this case took us, you know, all over the map

as far as investigations go.

We dealt with lies. We dealt with deception.

We dealt with car chases.

We dealt with uncooperative witnesses.

[indistinct chatter]

which just kind of goes to show you

that you always have to stay on your toes.

You always have to be able to think on your feet.

You always have to be able to adapt

and be ready for situations that you don't expect.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪