.
- In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented
by two separate, yet equally important groups:
the police, who investigate crime,
and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
[dog whimpers] - [exhales] Ooh.
[siren wailing]
[dog whimpering]
- I know, buddy. I know it's cold.
[equipment whirring]
Hello?
Oh, plenty of room at the end.
[dog barking]
Banjo?
[tense music]
What is it, boy?
[dog whimpering]
Ugh.
[groans]
[strains, grunts]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Vagrant flagged down a squad car up the block.
Dude was freaked. Said his dog had found a body.
The little fella's pretty cute.
- The dog or the vagrant? - [chuckles]
Each of these storage spaces
belong to one of the condos upstairs.
- Ooh, damn. Whew.
- Yeah, it's pretty ripe. You're gonna want this.
Helps hide the smell.
- Yeah. I'm good with that, though.
- I'm good too.
- Lock was clipped.
- The door to the exterior was pried open too.
Ew. All right.
[sighs] Female, from the looks of it.
- Not a very tall one if she could fit inside this suitcase.
- No, definitely on the shorter side.
Um, didn't find any ID,
and based on decomposition and the amount of accumulated dust,
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 changed my mind.
Thank you. [coughs and gags]
[coughing]
We need to talk to whoever owns the apartment
the storage unit 9F belongs to.
- Uh, it's going to be tricky.
9F is owned by a man named Zhang Tao.
- 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 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,
'cause they're all doing it.
- Ah, housing crisis brought to you by conspicuous consumption.
- So who would have access to the basement storage units?
- Well, w-we've currently got about 27 residents
actually living in the units, so any of them, obviously.
But honestly--[sighs] Could have been anyone.
- Narrows it down.
- Yeah, word spread around the neighborhood
about the building being empty,
so people keep breaking into the basement.
- Got any cameras down there?
- Yeah, of course. I can get you the footage.
- Yeah, we'll need everything you got
for the last few months.
- System only stores the data for a couple weeks.
Sorry, guys.
[door buzzes and lock clicks]
- The body was in rough shape.
She'd been in that suitcase for four or five months at least.
Cause of death appears to be a cervical fracture
between the C1 and C2 vertebrae.
- Somebody snapped her neck. - Mm-hmm.
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 ribbons
tells me she was post-puberty, but not by much.
Likely in her late teens or early 20s.
- Any distinct characteristics
that might make her easier to identify?
- She did have a tattoo on her left forearm.
The fluorescence spectrometer
was able to pick up the pigment.
You can just make out the letters.
- MCF.
- Confirmed with the Chinese embassy that Zhang Tao,
the owner of the storage unit where the body was found,
has never actually traveled to the United States.
- And similar to the building security system,
the 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?
- Well, the techs were able to pull a partial print
off the suitcase.
- Okay, wonderful. Actual evidence.
- But no hits in the system.
- 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 leads.
- It's a tough one, Lou.
- 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 New York City.
Statewide, the number is way higher.
The majority are between 15 and 25 years old.
- Same age as our vic.
- So we're looking for a needle in a haystack.
- It might not be that bleak.
Most cases are resolved quickly,
and it's common for 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 letters MCF.
- That one's a flower. That one's a butterfly.
Zodiac sign.
No dice.
- You said a lot of missing persons
are reported multiple times.
Is there any way to run the same search
but on closed cases?
Worth a shot.
[keyboard clicking]
Got her.
Lucia Falasco, 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 reports?
- Guy named Craig Valparaiso.
- Yeah, he was Lucia's gymnastics coach.
And according to state records,
Valparaiso took full custody of her when her mother,
Maureen Claire Falasco, died three years ago.
- MCF.
- Sounds like Lucia was trying pretty hard
to get away from this guy.
- Been missing for over five months.
He didn't call it in this time.
- Find out why.
[suspenseful music]
- Stay focused, stay focused.
Tighten up your form.
You're losing it.
You think that was acceptable?
You think that's how you win?
- Think we can ease up there a little bit, chief.
- What do you want?
- We'd like to talk to you about Lucia Falasco.
- 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 can chat there.
♪ ♪
.
- I swear I didn't kill Lucia.
I could never--[groans]
- 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 gonna say she got into 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'd already been through that circus twice.
She just-- she didn't want to be with me.
She kept running away, so--
and she took off again about six months ago.
I just 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 any way.
- Well, it's very unusual
for a gymnast's 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.
- Hmm. Quite the hero.
- It's certainly not what I planned.
And she was talented.
But by the time she took off,
I--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 her labrum.
Her career was over before it started.
Fate's cruel little joke.
She was messed up after that.
Hanging out with the wrong people,
partying, staying out all night.
I-I tried to rein her in, but she wouldn't listen
to me-- - That piss 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.
First few times Lucia ran away,
that's who they found her staying with.
Guarantee you she knows more than I do.
- You two were close?
- Kinda, I guess.
I hadn't known her long, but she was a good kid.
Just a little lost.
- She crashed with you a few times after she ran away
from her coach's house, 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 gonna have.
Plus he was crazy strict.
- And she stayed with you again September of 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 guy 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?
[indistinct chatter]
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 Nips?
- I don't think so.
- Then nah, I don't know her.
- Damn, she's cute.
Yeah, I would.
- That literally wasn't the 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.
- Can't believe these kids are out here
skateboarding in this weather.
- Well, that's dedication right there.
- Or mental illness. - [chuckles]
- Wait, wait, wait.
You gotta be kidding me. Check out the sparkle shoes.
Hey. Hey!
NYPD. We need to talk to you. Stay right there.
- I'm on him. Hey!
[tense music]
[siren wailing]
Hey! NYPD!
♪ ♪
- Theo, I'm north on Market.
- Hey!
Hey!
- [panting]
- Vince, I lost him.
He crossed, uh, Monroe.
He's headed north through the alley.
- Copy that.
[tires squealing]
I got him.
Mechanics Alley.
♪ ♪
No, no, no, no! [tires screech]
- Hey, cop! - 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!
- Vince.
Vince, what's going on? Are you okay?
- Hey, we'll have your badge for this, cop!
.
- Hey, Lou. - Hey.
You okay?
- [sighs]
- Walk me through what happened.
- 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-- he came out of nowhere.
- Was your siren on?
- Yeah, of course it was.
He just--you know, he didn't-- 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.
- Do we 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 to 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--I wasn't sure. I mean, 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--is he okay?
What--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 or tea? Water?
[apprehensive music]
♪ ♪
- You know what, Vince? I'm gonna handle the family,
and I think you need to go home.
- I mean, I should--
- Yeah, but really, you shouldn't, right?
You should just go home right now.
- She's right. It's been a lot, man.
- 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.
- Okay.
♪ ♪
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.
- We need to find Sparkle Shoes.
- I'll go through some security footage
from the subway stations around the alley where we lost him.
If he took a train, maybe we can track where he went.
- Yeah, I'll start pulling the street cam from the park.
Maybe we get a hit on facial rec.
- All right.
Look, man, are you sure you're good?
- I'm fine. All right?
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-- - Look, I'm fine.
Okay? Really, I'm fine.
- Vince.
- All right, how about this?
I will go to a meeting if I feel like I really need one.
Okay?
- Okay.
- I think 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.
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.
Look, I'm not here to bust you.
- Well, in that case, I was actually on TikTok.
Sorry. - Yeah, that's okay.
That's actually what I need your help with.
Um, I'm trying to find somebody
who I'm pretty sure posts videos online,
but I don't know his name.
- Does this have to do with what happened today?
- You eavesdropping on me and 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--he makes videos of himself skateboarding in the park.
And he wears these 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,
uh, 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 tags his location,
you might be able to find him that way.
There's a map.
- All right. - [laughs]
- BennyHaps, AKA 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.
Techs pulled fingerprints off the skateboard
that he dropped at the park.
It's a match to the partial we found on the suitcase.
This kid's 18 years old.
He started blowing up when he was 14
posting videos of himself online skateboarding,
doing stunts and stuff.
- Have you slept at all?
[tense music]
- 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.
- Well, 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.
- Yeah, 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
the building's manager sent over.
- 'Cause he sold the condo-- 4 1/2 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.
- Look, man, I didn't know--
- Yeah. Nowhere to run now, is there?
- 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.
- Fine by me. - Ow.
- Turn around.
Benjamin Hoffman... [handcuffs clicking]
You're under arrest. - [groaning]
- Not a word.
.
- Yeah. [sighs]
Hoffman's not talking?
- Already lawyered up.
Cordelia Travers. - He is 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 match the same make and model.
- Statements also show that he purchased Lucia a phone.
We found a slew of messages between them.
The texts establish 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?
They had some kind of lover's quarrel,
Hoffman kills her, puts her in the suitcase,
and then clears out?
- It's the most logical explanation.
He's got a history of domestic violence.
- But it's unlikely that will be admissible.
- We gotta charge him with something or cut him loose.
- 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.
But, um, let's charge him with murder two.
I can make this work.
[door opens and closes]
- 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?
[door closes]
- 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 from Amanda Waller.
- The defendant's ex-girlfriend?
- That is correct.
She will testify to an incident
where Hoffman got physically violent with her.
- The very definition of prior bad acts.
- You know, if you let me finish.
- Sure.
- He got physically violent with her
and specifically choked her.
Lucia Felasco's cause of death was a broken neck.
It speaks to a pattern of behavior
and is therefore admissible under Molineux.
- Choking someone and breaking their neck
are not the same thing.
- Now who's grasping?
- Again, my client was 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 siding with the prosecution here.
- He had his hand on my throat and he was squeezing so hard.
I screamed for him to stop, but he just kept going.
- Did you believe he was gonna kill you?
- Objection. Calls for speculation.
- I will rephrase. Were you scared for your life?
- 100%.
If someone hadn't stepped in and pulled him off of me,
he wouldn't have stopped.
- No further questions.
- Ms. 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?
- It was two years ago, so 16.
- Just a child.
- He already lived on his own. He was an adult.
- Did you know Lucia Felasco?
- 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
how Benny-- - No further questions.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Mr. Mason, you are the defendant's assistant, correct?
- Uh, yeah.
We didn't call it that, like, formal or whatever, but yeah,
he paid me to help him out shooting content
and running errands, stuff like that.
- Did he have you purchase a phone for Lucia Felasco
in late September of last year with his credit card?
- He did. I thought it was pretty crazy.
They only known each other for, like, a week,
and she was already living with him.
- Hmm. Did 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 4.
This is the data from Lucia's phone.
Records of every keystroke,
every time it 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 times a day, just like you said?
- Yeah.
- And can you see that all interaction with the phone
ceased at 11:47 p.m. 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 over to his place around 9:00
and hung out for, like, half an hour.
- Was Lucia Felasco there?
- Yes.
- When you left around 9:30,
were the defendant and Ms. Felasco
alone in the apartment?
- Yes.
- 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 the suitcase that was found
with the defendant's fingerprint on it and...
[gallery gasping]
With Lucia Felasco's dead body stuffed inside.
Thank you. Nothing further.
- Did my client ever explain to you
why Ms. Felasco was no longer living in his apartment?
- Uh, 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 her 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 that you purchased
in his apartment storage unit
in the basement of his building,
a basement it 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 Ms. Felasco,
or anyone, for that matter?
- No.
He was always pretty chill.
- Indeed.
Thank you.
Nothing further.
[tense music]
- We'll end there for today.
The trial will resume tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
Court is adjourned.
♪ ♪
- Price.
Hold up. - Oh, Cordelia.
What--[sighs] Let me guess.
Uh, you want to discuss a deal?
- Oh, I forgot how brilliant you are.
- [chuckles] Not interested.
- Uh, you should be.
- And why is that?
- Because he's willing to tell you what really happened.
.
- I really cared about Lucia. She was funny, sweet.
Her life had been tough, you know?
I understood. I--
I started making real money as an influencer when I was 15,
but my parents were stealing from me.
My--my dad lost a lot of that gambling.
So I took them to court, I got emancipated.
We both have basically been alone since we were 15.
- Right, you were two lonely kids adrift in the world
till you found each other.
So what made you kill her?
- I would never hurt Lucia or anyone else.
- Oh, okay. So you are just wasting 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-- - Meaning you were doing drugs.
- Cocaine.
That's why Cory stopped by. He was making a delivery.
We got high and Lucia started showing me
some of her old gymnastic moves on my trampoline.
It was all good vibes.
We were laughing.
And then--
She did a--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...
[sobs]
[groans] Um--[sighs]
It--it--it was an accident.
- If it was just an accident, then why didn't you call 911?
- I--um, I panicked. I--
There were drugs everywhere! I--
and even though she's only ten months younger than me,
she's still technically underage.
- So you thought that 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.
And I'm--I'm sorry.
I just--
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.
- And tell me, Mr. Hoffman--
Mr. Hoffman, do you have any evidence to back up this story?
- Uh, no.
But I swear it was an accident.
- He's willing to plead guilty
to the concealment of a human corpse.
That's the proper charge here.
- Offer declined.
- That's okay.
I--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 fleeing when they tried to question him.
It will establish Hoffman's consciousness of guilt.
- Will do.
But Nolan--[sighs]
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,
see 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.
- Mm, I don't know.
That scenario he laid out
could very well result in a C1 cervical fracture.
It's plausible.
- Okay, but he-- he can't prove any of it.
- Well, we can't prove he's lying either.
And if he's telling the truth,
then the appropriate sentence is 5 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--is not the behavior of someone who is 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?
- Uh...
Just one moment, Your Honor.
- Mr. Price.
- Uh, Your Honor, it seems we are having some difficulty
locating our next witness.
We request a brief continuance while we look into the matter.
- Uh, with all due respect, 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 ahold of him either.
He's not answering anyone's phone calls.
- [sighs] Okay.
Um...
well, let's start calling around hospitals,
see if anyone has been admitted who matches his description.
- Hey, hey. Man, I'm sorry.
- Vince. - I'm sorry. All right?
I--I was a no-show.
- We've been looking for you. We were worried.
- Hey, what's going on?
- Uh--
- Are you okay?
- Uh, Derek Crosby was, um,
declared brain dead this morning
and his family took him off life support.
[somber music]
- Why don't we go in my office?
Come on.
Uh, 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 in his hand--
- I lied.
Make my actions seem justified.
- Hey, Vince, you need to be careful.
- I just--I'm scared for my career and my whole life.
- I--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-- I want to tell the truth.
I screwed up.
And now-- - Vince, stop talking.
♪ ♪
[sighs] You didn't want this to happen.
And you were doing your job.
And--and--[sighs]
Accidents happen. - [scoffs]
- 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. - A sponsor?
- No, no, no. I'm good.
- Hey.
- Look, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.
♪ ♪
- How's he doing?
- Uh, yeah, he's having a hard time.
I'm just gonna go make sure he gets home all right.
Um--[sighs]
Call Cory Mason.
Let's--let's see if he backs up Hoffman's claims.
[buzzer blares]
- 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 two charge
in exchange for him pleading guilty
to concealment of a human corpse.
- [exhales deeply] - And reckless endangerment.
And assuming his version of events is true,
he purchased and provided Lucia with drugs
which were directly causal to her death.
- He'll be looking at 6 to 8 years
instead of 25 to life.
- We've got a deal.
- We'll draw up the agreement.
- So Counselor, what caused you to reverse course?
- Thought there was a chance the jury might believe him.
- Wow. Not a change of heart? Pfft.
That's a shame.
I'll buy you a drink. Come on.
[somber music]
- 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--
I slipped.
[sighs] And it's hard.
But yesterday was easier than today.
So there's that.
I know I just have to get up every day
and keep going.
And I will.
I will.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[wolf howls]